Ezra Klein - What the tea party wants from the Constitution

Ezra Klein - What the tea party wants from the Constitution: "In reality, the tea party -- like most everyone else -- is less interested in living by the Constitution than in deciding what it means to live by the Constitution. When the constitutional disclaimers at the bottom of bills suit them, they'll respect them. When they don't -- as we've seen in the case of the individual mandate -- they won't."

Section 1501 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the so-called "mandate" was put there at the insistence of the health insurance industry and their Republican water-carrier's. Now the rethugs want to run away from responsibility for it and hide under the Tea Party's skirts.

Quiet deal on Obama's judge nominees in the Senate - AP News Wire, Associated Press News - Salon.com

Quiet deal on Obama's judge nominees in the Senate - AP News Wire, Associated Press News - Salon.com

Oh boy! The rethugs will 'let' Obama appoint a few judges. This is big news.

Haley Barbour Praises Racist Group - The Daily Beast

Haley Barbour Praises Racist Group - The Daily Beast

Hey, at least he's honest about his racism.

House Republicans Block Child Marriage Prevention Act

House Republicans Block Child Marriage Prevention Act

As if the rethugs could act any worse. They have completely lost any moral compass. Their party is quite literally evil in their rhetoric, intent and actions.

Colbert Testimony Before Congress (House Subcommittee)

Obama Demeans His Own Supporters

Do you order the "media special" Kool-aid by the gallon or have you had a stroke. Your assertions are not supported by the "facts" you have grasped out of thin air and your opinions, based on such made up nonsense are therefore completely irrelevant. As a the chairman of my county democratic party in one of the reddest counties in Texas, I worked on Mr. Obama's campaign for two solid years. Now two years later, EVERY democrat I have spoken to in this county is utterly disgusted with the record of the President and his Democratically controlled legislature.

His actions, his words (and lack of them) at crucial points during our generation's most trying times have sucked all the life sustaining air of his campaign promises out of our lungs.

Now we former Obama advocates are dying a tortured death breathing the stale fumes of his compromises. If he had fought for the principles he convinced us he stood for with all of his strength, and filled the administration with outsiders rather than insiders, if he had acknowledged the hard work of his grass roots organizers, instead of ignoring them. If he had kept the fire in the belly of his followers, if he had held the Bush White house accountable for destroying our economy and sent a few hedge fund guys to jail, we might had been able to hang on. But instead he compromised without a hard fight. That is called capitulation, not compromise.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Macro Economics of Social Security

Sounds like common sense to me, but nowadays there isn't much of a market for common sense. The Repugthugs Lie Machine churns out lies so prolifically that valid observations like those in this post are drowned out. I appreciate the economic principles elucidated by Mr. Williamson very much. I can't believe no one else has commented on this post.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Fox parent's donation causes stir - Keach Hagey - POLITICO.com

Fox parent's donation causes stir - Keach Hagey - POLITICO.com

M0st media company's make contributions to political party's but this $1,000,000 went only to the Republican Governor's Association and there was no matching donation to the Democrats. Clearly, for a media company which has "fair and balanced" as it's tag line, this is wrong. But everyone knows that that tag line is and has been a lie since Fox news began using it. Fox news is one of the main cogs in The Republican Lie Machine which uses "news" as a political tool closely resembling a hatchet on the backs of Democrats. They make up false controversies, they distort facts, they make up "facts" and they churn out disinformation with alarming zeal. There motto should be "tell a lie enough times and it becomes a fact". I know the references to the book 1984 by George Orwell have worn off, but they are absolutely true. This trend is one of the great disasters in America, allowing Fox news hate speech to go uncontested.

Media Matters: Conservatives' perpetual dishonesty machine | Media Matters for America

Media Matters: Conservatives' perpetual dishonesty machine | Media Matters for America

I have talked about the Republican Lie Machine before but this post on Media Matters explains in detail the complete absence of truth in a recent hysterical story invented by the ultra-conservative, never in touch with reality, amoral, hate spewing machine that the right wing media has become.

"Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh regularly tout their supposed accuracy and often claim their critics never prove them wrong. Fittingly, this in itself is a complete falsehood. Limbaugh and Beck are wrong for a living, but have been rewarded for their perpetual wrongness by assuming the role of the two most important cogs in the conservative media.

Every day, the conservative noise machine -- Fox News, Beck, Limbaugh, and other prominent conservative talk radio hosts and bloggers -- hurl false accusations with the hopes of damaging the Obama administration, Democrats, and progressives politically. Make no mistake: this is the primary motivation for the majority of the stories they promote. Pesky things like "facts" and "reality" are, at best, a trivial concern.

Often, these attacks are baseless, easily debunked, and laughably absurd -- yet conservative media outlets rarely (if ever) offer corrections when they are proven wrong. Instead they either double down on their attacks or simply ignore that they were wrong in the first place and move on to the next overhyped bit of nonsense.

While it may seem like a minor story in the grand scheme of things, one example from this week perfectly exemplifies the utter lack of journalistic standards endemic to conservative media.

Early this week, conservatives were in their usual panic mode over what they claimed was evidence that the Obama administration "backed" or "preferred" the release of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the terrorist better known as the Lockerbie bomber. As we pointed out, reports -- often the same reports these conservatives were linking to in order to make their arguments -- indicated that the administration wanted Megrahi to "remain imprisoned in view of the nature of the crime."

Fox News twisted reality to claim that the "U.S. Backed Freedom, Not Prison, for Bomber." Matt Drudge splashed a huge headline across his website announcing that the "White House Backed Release Of Lockerbie Bomber." Pam Geller -- whose deranged rantings have earned her frequent appearances on Fox News and bylines on Andrew Breitbart's "Big" websites, Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller, and the American Thinker -- called for a "special investigation" and a "charge of treason" for Obama.

Rush Limbaugh -- while bragging, as he often does, that he was "executing assigned host duties flawlessly" with "zero mistakes" --claimed that Obama "backed the release" of the Lockerbie bomber because he wanted to "make nice with the Muslim world."

Late Monday, when the State Department released the administration's correspondence with the Scottish Ministry of Justice, it confirmed in unambiguous terms that the administration was "not prepared to support Megrahi's release on compassionate release or bail," and that "it would be most appropriate for Megrahi to remain imprisoned for the entirety of his sentence." They stipulated if he were to be released, he should remain in Scotland rather than risk him receiving an "extremely inappropriate" "welcoming reception" upon being transferred to Libya.

So, after this story completely fell apart, did conservative media figures correct the record and let their readers/listeners/viewers know that the administration did not "support" or "prefer" the release of the Lockerbie bomber?

Of course not ".

Fraser Failed to Disclose Perry Land Deal — Texas Ethics Commission | The Texas Tribune

Fraser Failed to Disclose Perry Land Deal — Texas Ethics Commission | The Texas Tribune

Gee, I wish I could make an $800,000 profit by knowing the right people. This is the blatant hypocrisy of the R's that preach about "free enterprise" what they mean is conniving and stealing instead of working for an honest dollar.

Fraser Failed to Disclose Perry Land Deal

by Matt Stiles, The Texas Tribune
July 29, 2010

The lawmaker involved in a questionable land deal with Gov. Rick Perry failed to disclose ownership or sale of the property to the Texas Ethics Commission, an apparent violation of a state ethics rules, according to a review of his personal financial statements.
State Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, didn’t list his September 2000 acquisition of the waterfront lot on Lake Lyndon B. Johnson in the disclosure form he filed for that year. He also didn't note a year later the fact that Perry purchased the property from him in 2001, the documents show.
State law requires elected officials such as Fraser, a friend and political ally of the governor, to describe "any and all" interests they or their families have in real property. They also must disclose any proceeds they received when those interests are sold. Failure to file the forms on time can result in civil penalties levied by the commission, though Fraser will not face enforcement because the commission doesn't have the authority to levy fines for a 10-year-old violation.
Fraser, a wealthy investor, listed numerous stock holdings and other financial information on the 52-page filing but omitted the land deal. He was traveling out of the state on Wednesday and was unavailable for comment, said his chief of staff, Janice McCoy, who declined to discuss the issue.
Andy Wilson, a research associate for campaign finance issues at the watchdog group Public Citizen Texas, said the senator's failure to correctly file the forms is no small matter. "The public’s right to know on this is absolute," Wilson said. "Considering that, for most Texans, their homes are the most important thing that they own, I’m surprised that someone would forget to put this on a financial disclosure — especially waterfront property on Horseshoe Bay."
Perry’s investment in the resort property was the subject of a lengthy investigation published Sunday in The Dallas Morning News. The paper reported that the governor may have received an enhanced deal based on personal favors from wealthy friends and campaign contributors. Fraser was central to the deal. Perry’s office has denied any special treatment: The governor told the newspaper that each personal land deal he has made while in office "has been open and honest, and at arm's length." His staff has repeated those sentiments in other news accounts.
Perry’s Democratic opponent in the governor’s race, former Houston mayor Bill White, has pounced on the revelations about the land deal, calling Perry dishonest and the money he made on the property — nearly $500,000 when he sold in 2007 — "ill-gotten gains."
"The questions about why Rick Perry’s close friend hid the transactions are just one of many questions that needs to be addressed immediately," said White’s spokeswoman, Katy Bacon.
Perry's campaign defended the governor's handling of the land deal.
“This transaction was appropriate, conducted at arm’s length, and the governor’s office was fully transparent regarding the matter,” said spokeswoman Catherine Frazier. “It’s clear that Bill White will say anything to distract Texans.”
The News' appraisal concluded that Perry, who purchased the half-acre lot for $300,000, paid $150,000 below market value. When he sold the parcel in 2007 for $1.15 million, that price was $350,000 over market value, the appraiser concluded.
The paper's report also exposed that the land was sold and purchased by wealthy individuals with political connections — and that Perry hired a lawyer he appointed to the Texas Public Safety Board to help fight his property tax appraisal. The story noted conflicting and evolving accounts of the transaction’s details, raising questions among watchdogs.
"The man on the street on this would think that this is a series of deals that smell of special favors being created for elected officials to curry their favor," Ellen Miller, executive director of the nonprofit Sunlight Foundation in Washington, D.C., toldthe News.
Perry's campaign defended the governor's handling of the deal, taking a shot at White

“This transaction was appropriate, conducted at arm’s length, and the governor’s office was fully transparent regarding the matter,” she said. “It’s clear that Bill White will say anything to distract Texans from the fact that he’s not unveiled one new policy initiatives, and that he continues to hide the truth about his business practices and liberal policies.”

If Fraser were to correct the form, he almost certainly faces no sanctions by the Ethics Commission, an appointed body and state agency that oversees lobbying, campaign-finance and ethics enforcement.
The rule requiring timely filing of the forms — which are intended to "strengthen the faith and confidence of the people of this state in state government" — includes what amounts to a two-year statute of limitations, said Natalia Luna Ashley, the commission’s general counsel, who only discussed the requirements and not the specifics of Fraser’s reports.
In general, current law gives the commissioners power to sanction officials for omissions or incorrect filings on the financial forms in response to sworn complaints by members of the public or rival campaigns. They also can fine officials for filing reports late, which would include corrections after commission deadlines.
The law in 2000 and 2001, however, exempted officials from late-filing penalties associated with corrections if they swore they made the mistake or omission in good faith.
Fraser last summer corrected several years of reports that omitted property interests, according to the commission, which never fined him for late or incorrect filings. In the report for calendar year 2008, for example, Fraser neglected to note his own property at Horseshoe Bay.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://trib.it/a8p7sG.