Month: January 2012

Civility

by digby

In a heated hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill, Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman called upon the billionaire Koch brothers to be subpoenaed over their alleged monetary interests in the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. Republican Congressman Ed Whitfield angrily cut off Waxman. “We’re not going to be subpoenaing the Koch brothers … because the Koch brothers have nothing to do with this project,” Whitfield snapped.

“Point of order!” Waxman exclaimed. “You cut me out in the middle of a sentence!”

“Your time was up, Mr. Waxman!” Whitfield shot back. “We are going to recess this hearing for ten minutes and then we’re going to come back.”

“Are you calling the Koch brothers during the recess?” Waxman sniped.

“If you want to talk about that, let’s talk about the millions of dollars the Obama administration gave companies like Solyndra and people like George Kaiser and other campaign bundlers,” Whitfield fumed.

“Why are you interrupting members and then you take unlimited time for yourself?” Waxman responded.

“I’m the chairman! And I’m telling you right now we’re going to recess for ten minutes!” Whitfield boomed, before storming out of the hearing.

For background on this, read this article in The Hill. The Kochs are a great symbol for the Democrats and they’re smart to use it. But in case you think this is terribly uncivilized, get a gander at what the GOP has in mind:

In 1996, Republicans pivoting to the second year of control of the House realized they made a strategic error in aggressively thumping environmental regulations.

“Let’s stop shooting ourselves in the foot on that one,” House Speaker Newt Gingrich told his lieutenants, as chronicled by Washington Post reporters David Maraniss and Michael Weisskopf in their 1996 book, “Tell Newt to Shut Up!”

“We kinda looked up one day and said ‘This wasn’t smart,’” recalled Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) in the book. The revelation spurred approval of major changes in 1996 to the Safe Drinking Water Act even as Republicans looked to knock off Bill Clinton from a second term in the White House.

In 2012, with Gingrich on the campaign trail and Republican front-runner Mitt Romney tied with Obama in a new CNN poll, Boehner, now speaker, and his House GOP crew aren’t second-guessing their agenda. Instead, they see energy as a wedge issue they can use to appeal to independent voters with a pro-jobs message, especially if gasoline prices start to increase this summer.

Nah, politics haven’t moved right. Both sides do it, remember? It’s a wash!

I do hope the Democrats aren’t also forgetting the lessons of the past in terms of how this Solyndra pseudo-scandal is developing. The Republicans will spend as much money as it takes to get this to penetrate to at least “smell test” level. It’s what they do and they’re good at it. I don’t know if it has the potency they think it has, but it will be a distraction and an annoyance if it takes off regardless — and make the public question alternative energy as nothing more than a scam. Which is the point.

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This is just pathetic:

Tina DuPuy writes:

Mitt Romney’s hurdle in winning the love/respect/admiration/fear of his party can be summed up in one photo: It was taken by his son, Tagg (doesn’t Sarah Palin have a kid with that name?) and put on Twitter this week. It’s of Romney and his wife Ann, presumably in a hotel basement, side-by-side pouring detergent into washing machines. Mitt is, of course, wearing a starched button up shirt and jeans, which is what people who never do laundry think people would wear when they do laundry. (Personally, if I have a clean starched shirt and jeans that’s an indication I don’t need to do laundry yet.) “Nothing like the glamorous life on the road,” the intermittent front-runner’s son tweeted with the pic.

This photo comes in the same week as Romney’s tax return where we learned Romney doesn’t actually work. He is in fact, as he’s claimed, unemployed. His money…makes his money. Millions and millions. He pays a tax rate of 13.9 percent – far lower than your average laundromat owner.

Which leads me to ask: Why is Mitt being photographed doing his laundry? Were there no Dukakis tanks available?

Apparently pleased with his Average Joe “real street” cred, Romney happily explained the image to NBC News, “We do our laundry at least once a week, because we’ll be on the road for 30 straight days. Who else do you think is going to do our laundry?”

“We do our laundry at least once a week because we’ll be on the road for 30 straight days?” Huh?

Maybe he should have Tagg do it for him. After all, he owes him big:

David Kay Johnston: The Romneys gave $100 milliion to their sons and paid not one penny of gift tax. They were able to take assets they have that are producing enormous income and, under the law, give that money to their children and not pay any taxes on it.

Sambolin: Is that something you specifically found in what has been released to you?

Johnston: Yes. I have suspected this and written about it in my column that this is what happened, and last night, Brad Malt, the attorney for the Romneys, confirmed to Reuters that we were correct. They have not paid a penny of gift tax. That’s because Congress allows a very tiny group of people — the Romneys by their income are in the top 1% of the top 1% — to not count as having any value the real source of their income, something called carried interest, if they give it to their children.

I think it might be time to recycle this again.

So, according to dday, New York AG Eric Schneiderman is either a whore or a dupe, as were those who initially thought it was probably good news that he was tapped for the president’s new “financial fraud task force.” Too bad. Even among the most rabidly cynical, Schneiderman had been touted as a smart person of integrity and one of the only powerful Democrats in the land on the right side of this issue. So much for that, I guess.

Banning fetuses in food: when morons are in charge of our laws

by David Atkins

Oh good lord:

A Republican state senator from Oklahoma City introduced a bill Tuesday that would ban the use of aborted human fetuses in food, despite conceding that he’s unaware of any company using such a practice.

Freshman Sen. Ralph Shortey said his own Internet research led him to believe such a ban is necessary and prompted him to offer the bill aimed at raising “public awareness” and giving an “ultimatum to companies” that might consider such a policy.

Shortey said he discovered suggestions online that some companies use embryonic stem cells to develop artificial flavors, but added that he is unaware of any Oklahoma companies doing such research.

In an e-mail to The Associated Press, U.S. Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman Pat El-Hinnawy said: “FDA is not aware of this particular concern.”

The executive director of the anti-abortion group Oklahomans for Life, which has successfully pushed some of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the country through the state’s GOP-controlled Legislature, also said he had never heard of human fetuses being used in food research.

“I don’t know anything about that,” said Tony Lauinger.

“His own Internet research.” If this sounds to you like your crazy right-wing aunt freaking out over bullshit in a chain email, that’s because you’re not that far off the mark. The only significant story in recent years about this apparently crucial issue is this bit of interesting science involving Pepsi and stem cells from last year:

A bizarre controversy is unfolding over an impending low-calorie soda from Pepsi (PEP), which the company is creating with the help of the biotech company Senomyx (SNMX). Numerous anti-abortion groups have started a boycott of Pepsi products because they say Senomyx, which develops new ingredients intended to enhance sweetness and other flavors, has done so using embryonic kidney cells that were originally taken from an aborted baby.

This accusation presents a two-fold problem for Pepsi. The first, most obvious one is that the beverage giant has now ardent anti-abortionists breathing down its neck. The second, and possibly more troubling, issue is that some of Pepsi’s attempts to create groundbreaking and healthier products are now associated with fetal kidney cells.

Is this claim true? Neither Pepsi nor Senomyx returned calls, so we don’t know the companies’ side of the story. But a perusal of Senomyx’s patents suggests that it may well be. All but 7 of the company’s 77 patents refer to the use of HEK 293 (human embryonic kidney) cells, which researchers have used for decades as biological workhorses. (For the bio-geeks among you, these cells offer a reliable way to produce new proteins via genetic engineering.)

The company appears to be engineering HEK cells to function like the taste-receptor cells we have in our mouth. This way, Senomyx can test millions of substances to see if they work as different types of taste enhancers without subjecting human volunteers to endless taste tests.

To non-scientists this may sound a bit strange, but the reality is that HEK 293 cells are widely used in pharmaceutical research, helping scientists create vaccines as well as drugs like those for rheumatoid arthritis.

So Pepsi’s research affiliates were using stem cells to test food substances the same way pharma companies test vaccines. Interesting and kind of cool. So naturally last year the nutcase womb police boycotted Pepsi; and now partly due to this ridiculous nontroversy, Pepsi has disaffiliated from Senomyx.

And less than a year later, this embarrassing incident for America has trickled down into the fevered imagination of some elected moron in Oklahoma that people are being fed fetus parts on their dinner plates. So naturally he steps into legislative action based on his “Internet research.”

Welcome to the heartland “values” to which we unAmerican coastal elites are supposed to give deference and utmost respect.

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Electric Teabag Acid Test

The “A” Team

by digby

So we’re going to have the Mitch Daniels Experience tonight. Feel the magic:

This guy and Christie, Jindal and Jeb Bush are the supposed “A Team” that didn’t take the field in this cycle. I think they make Newtie and Santorum look like Churchill and Roosevelt by comparison.

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To Mitt or Not to Mitt

by David Atkins

I’m sure you’ve seen the numbers by now:

Mitt Romney’s campaign released hundreds of pages of tax documents on Tuesday morning, providing an inside glimpse into his sprawling investments, both in the United States and abroad, in an effort to dampen the attacks on his wealth that have become a central focus of the Republican presidential nominating battle.

Mr. Romney and his wife, Ann, had an effective federal income tax rate in 2010 of 13.9 percent, paying about $3 million in taxes on an adjusted gross income of $21.6 million, the vast majority of it flowing from a myriad of stock holdings, mutual funds and other investments, including profits and investment income from Bain Capital, the private equity firm Mr. Romney retired from in 1999.

The part of me that wants to see an easier win in November desperately wants Gingrich to win the nomination.

But the fighter in me wants to see Romney win this nomination so that we can have the tax the rich conversation undistracted all through November. Sadly, I don’t get to choose. That’s for the crazies on the other side to decide.
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From the stating the obvious files

by digby

Friendly reminder:

The United States’ continued operation of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba is a “clear breach of international law,” United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay said today, Reuters reports. Only six trials have been completed in 10 years, while eight detainees have died at the prison. “While fully recognizing the right and duty of states to protect their people and territory from terrorist acts, I remind all branches of the U.S. government of their obligation under international human rights law to ensure that individuals deprived of their liberty can have the lawfulness of their detention reviewed before a court,” Pillay said. “Where credible evidence exists against Guantanamo detainees, they should be charged and prosecuted. Otherwise, they must be released.”

Might as well be talking to a wall.

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The Earl of Romney

by digby

I think Atrios explains the problem with Lord Romney’s taxes perfectly:

Romney has said he was unemployed. He’s right. He actually does nothing to earn most of his income. He’s just in possession of a giant pile of cash. He pays some people to do stuff with that giant pile of cash so it earns a rate of return. And because we are ruled by horrible people who think the lives of the 1% are more important than everyone else, the tax rate on any money that pile of cash earns is much lower than it is on the money earned by people who actually work.

Now the .01% like Romney will tell you that they work actually work much harder than the rest of us and as a result they should be allowed to keep all of their money. After all, if they didn’t work harder they wouldn’t be rich, right?

Indeed, Romney likes to say that his father gave him nothing and he pulled himself up by his bootstraps. If you believe that growing up with a very famous family name in both the world of business and politics — in a world made up of other people with vast wealth and famous family names in business and politics — counts as up from nothing, I suppose that might be true. But Mitt was born with every advantage, many more than his father who really did work his way up the ladder of success. It’s insulting that he even tries to relate to average people in this way.

There’s nothing wrong with being wealthy and running for office. But if you are nothing but a privileged plutocrat, without any sense of noblesse oblige, everyone will rightly see your self-serving policies for what they are: a chance to enhance your own wealth, that of your wealthy peers and, most importantly, that of your heirs. In other words you are just another in a long line of would-be aristocrats trying to game the system for your own.

We’ve had many wealthy presidents in America, but never one as rich as Mitt whose policies were so blatantly geared to make himself even wealthier at the expense of the rest of the nation. If he wins this election we will know once and for all that deep down, Americans really want to be subjects, not citizens.

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Patriotic Self-deportation

by digby

The problem, as one wag put it, is “who want to take all our patriots?”

Update: Here’s what “self-deportation” is rally all about.

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