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by Craig Giammona, NBC News
An Alabama police chief brought Rep. John Lewis to tears Saturday, apologizing to the noted civil rights leader for failing to protect the Freedom Riders during a trip to Montgomery in 1961.
Lewis and fellow civil rights activists were beaten by a mob after arriving at Montgomery's Greyhound station in May 1961.
On Saturday at ceremony at First Baptist Church, the city's current police chief, Kevin Murphy, apologized to Lewis and offered him his badge in a gesture of reconciliation, telling the longtime Georgia congressman that Montgomery police had "enforced unjust laws" in failing to protect the Freedom Riders more than five decades ago. Lewis, who was arrested during civil rights protests in cities across the south, said it was the first time a police chief had apologized to him. "It means a great deal," Lewis said. "I teared up. I tried to keep from crying."
Lewis and other members of Congress were taking part in the 13th Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage to Alabama, a three-day event that also included trips to Selma, Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. Murphy said the decision to apologize was easy.
"For me, freedom and the right to live in peace is a cornerstone of our society and that was something that Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and Congressman Lewis were trying to achieve" Murphy said. "I think what I did today should have been done a longtime ago. It needed to be done. It needed to be spoken because we have to live with the truth and it is the truth." [MORE]
Via Coffee Party USA
On Saturday, Republicans at the Michigan GOP’s convention in Lansing voted by an overwhelming 1,370-132 margin to back a plan that would “divvy-up 14 of the state’s 16 electoral votes according to which candidate got the most votes in each...
Via Monica S Mcfeeters
By Steve Benen, The Maddowblog - Thu Nov 29, 2012
In his second term, President Harry Truman condemned the snail's pace at which lawmakers actually got some work done, labeling it a "Do-Nothing" Congress. After all, the 80th Congress (1947-1948) only passed 906 bills over its two-year period. The current Congress, by comparison, has passed just 196 bills, easily the lowest total since the U.S. House Clerk's office started keeping track. Consider the progress in chart form, which should drive home just how unproductive the 112th Congress (2011-2012) really is. In fairness, I should note that the current Congress still has another month to go, and I suppose it's possible that there will be a flurry of progress and constructive policymaking. But given partisan differences and a shrinking calendar, I'm pretty comfortable with the notion that this will be the least productive of any modern Congress by a large margin. This is not, by the way, the inevitable result of divided government (one party controlling the House; the other party controlling the Senate). There have been plenty of other Congresses, some quite recently, with a Democratic Senate and a Republican House, but their bill totals weren't nearly this anemic. This is not, by the way, the inevitable result of divided government (one party controlling the House; the other party controlling the Senate). There have been plenty of other Congresses, some quite recently, with a Democratic Senate and a Republican House, but their bill totals weren't nearly this anemic. When evaluating whether this is, in fact, the worst Congress ever, keep this tidbit in mind. MORE:http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/11/29/15541727-making-the-do-nothing-congress-look-great-by-comparison#.ULedP5KJzfY.scoopit
Via Margaret Reeve Panahi
Americans didn't intend to elect a Republican majority to the House of Representatives. Thanks to GOP-engineered redistricting, they did. by Adam Serwer and Jaeah Lee, Mother Jones Americans woke up on November 7th having elected a Democratic president, expanded the Democratic majority in the Senate, and preserved the Republican majority in the House. That's not what they voted for, though. Most Americans voted for Democratic representation in the House. The votes are still being counted, but as of now it looks as if Democrats have a slight edge in the popular vote for House seats, 49%-48.2%, according to an analysis by the Washington Post. Still, as the Post's Aaron Blake notes, the 233-195 seat majority the GOP will likely end up with represents the GOP's "second-biggest House majority in 60 years and their third-biggest since the Great Depression."
So how did Republicans keep their House majority despite more Americans voting for the other party—something that has only happened three times in the last hundred years, according to political analyst Richard Winger? Because they drew the lines.
After Republicans swept into power in state legislatures in 2010, the GOP gerrymandered key states, redrawing House district boundaries to favor Republicans. In Pennsylvania, Democratic candidates received half of the votes in House contests, but Republicans will claim about three quarters of the congressional seats. The same is true in North Carolina. More than half the voters in that state voted for Democratic representation, yet Republicans will fill about 70 percent of the seats. Democrats drew more votes in Michigan than Republicans, but they'll take only 5 out of the state's 14 congressional seats. [MORE]
Via Eric Byler
The outcome of the elections will be determined by the voters' decision as to which of the two candidates is good for America. But if any of them are vacillating in their vote over whether Obama has been a good president for Israel, the answer is yes.
Via Lynda Park
A prominent GOP activist charged with the brutal sexual assault of five women died of an apparent suicide Tuesday, just four days after he made bail.
PODCAST on Coffee Party Radio: "Socially Liberal, Fiscally Conservative."
Excerpt from Socially Liberal/Fiscally Conservative essay by Eric Byler I recently heard Ryan Warner of Colorado Public Radio ask Maya Macguineas of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget if it is true that fiscal responsibility is a Republican issue. She said no; it’s the issue for whichever party is not in power. Perhaps so, but if fiscal responsibility is a Republican principle only (or at all), why was their no mention of deficit or debt on Fox “News” during the George W. Bush administration, when we turned Bill Clinton’s record surpluses into record deficits, when open-ended occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan added $1.38 trillion (and counting) to our national debt, when we implemented a wasteful prescription drug program without paying for it, and when we initiated the Bush Tax Cuts which, if you count ONLY the benefits afforded to the wealthiest 5% and exclude the rest, have added $1.15 trillion to our debt? How is it that our federal deficit and mounting debt suddenly became the centerpiece of political entertainment on Jan. 20, 2009, the day Barack Obama was sworn in as president? In the summer of 2011, while watching an expertly-staged and beautifully-acted miniseries called The Debt Ceiling Hostage Crisis, I learned that Senator Barack Obama voted against raising the debt ceiling in 2006 in order to embarrass President Bush. I didn’t hear about it at the time. Did you? Perhaps that is because, in order to penetrate mainstream consciousness, political theater requires a massive and constant distribution mechanism. The perception that “fiscal responsibility is a Republican issue” is little more than a plank in the GOP campaign platform. Supporting that platform is the design of media empires who spend vast amounts of money to have you believe it. That doesn't make it true. ...President Obama has been maligned for, upon inheriting a massive deficit and an imploding economy, advocating for new spending and additional tax cuts like those contained in the “stimulus” program. Please note: these were temporary spending increases and temporary tax cuts, unlike the on-going expenditures signed into law by Bush which add to our debt each year (see chart). Of course, this fact hasn’t prevented Republican media empires and their spokespersons in Congress from blaming the entire deficit and the entire debt on Obama. People like Paul Ryan, who practically spit when they say the word "stimulus," always fail to mention that he and other severe conservatives in Congress voted for a stimulus program that was $700 billion, nearly as large as the $816 billion package that passed without them. And, if you apply a long-term view to the decision to spend this money instead of allowing a global depression to take root, you might even say that spending that $816 billion was the fiscally responsible thing to do. [MORE]
Via Eric Byler
by Brentin Mock and Voting Rights Watch 2012 for The Nation Whatever shenanigans True the Vote and their tea party cells had or has in plans for November will run up against a brick wall in the form of civil rights lawyers and government officials who are striking back against threats to corrupt voting rights. News reports from across the nation this week are showing a formidable resistance to True the Vote’s operations, which include recruiting “a million” poll watchers and poll workers, and making voters feel “like driving and seeing the police follow you.” It’s clear at this point that they won’t come anywhere close to a million, but whoever they recruit will be met at the polls by a much larger squad, an election protection team consisting of thousands of lawyers and poll watchers trained to answer any questions voters may have if approached or challenged by tea partiers who try to kirk out at the polls. A few examples: A group of Ohio state senators sent a letter to Sec. of State Jon Husted warning him of plans from True the Vote and their state affiliate Ohio Voter Integrity Project to challenge voters illegally. Sec. Husted responded by stating “he will act swiftly to investigate and seek prosecution of any offenders,” of voter intimidation, as reported by the Columbus Dispatch. The Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights (IREHR) released a report about True the Vote’s infiltration and influence throughout the North Carolina electoral landscape, particularly through their local affiliate North Carolina Voter Integrity Project. While True the Vote says that they don’t target communities of color, the IREHR has mapped out predominantly African American communities where it reports True the Vote’s recruits will be focused (see above). The report prompted Rep. Elijah Cummings to issue yet another demand for True the Vote's procedural documents. The labor group AFL-CIO held a conference call this morning where it discussed the deployment of its Lawyers Coordinating Committee, part of their My Vote, My Right voter protection program. Lawyers from Florida, Pennsylvania and Nevada described how they have already been fending off challenges and voter suppression efforts from True the Vote and their affiliates, well in advance of Election Day. Florida attorney Alma Gonzalez said their lawyer team is in regular communications with all but one of Florida’s county elections supervisors about True the Vote and have successfully blunted purges demanded by True the Vote’s recruits — the lone standout being Collier County, where purging has commenced. Said Gonzalez, “We have also communicated directly to True the Vote and (their local affiliate) Tampa Vote Fair that we are ready and we are watching them. We will also have poll monitors where we have seen Tampa Vote Fair's efforts undertaken in order to protect those voters in those areas.” [MORE]
Via Eric Byler
Our country might have been better off if it was still just men voting. There is nothing worse than a bunch of mean, hateful women. They are diabolical in how than can skewer a person. I do not see that in men. The whole time I worked, I'd much rather have a male boss than a female boss. Double-minded, you never can trust them.
by GREG MITCHELL, Pressing Issues I posted this for a second time yesterday and Jon Stewart ran with it tonight. Not sure there's any connection but hell, I'll run it again. Like me, he was egging on Obama to follow suit. Jon advised, "Oh yeah, this guy lost, right?" [MORE] From the notes posted by nYankee2003 via YouTube:
President Obama should just run this as a 60 second spot in all of the swing states. If Medicare had existed in 1936, it would have been at the top of FDR's list. FDR is basically talking about Mitt Romney's position on RomneyCare/ObamaCare
Via Eric Byler
OpenSecrets.org is the most comprehensive resource for federal campaign contributions, lobbying data and analysis available anywhere. We help you follow the money in Washington, D.C.
Via Margaret Reeve Panahi
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The same Republicans who thought Norquist's infamous comment about "shrinking government small enough to drown it in the bathtub" was witty and wise are now having second thoughts about the idea.
Via Monica S Mcfeeters
Sequester would cut funds to education, public safety
KARE
Cuts include 7 million dollars for primary and secondary education, as well as 9.2 million for teachers and aides helping students with disabilities.
Via Monica S Mcfeeters
by Annabel Park, Story of America
Augustine Carter, an 85-year-old voter in Richmond, Virginia, tells her story of the trouble she went through to vote in 2012. Born in 1928, she never had a birth certificate and she never got a driver's license because she decided years ago that driving wasn't for her. Her baptism certificate was sufficient for all identification purposes until the 2012 election. She had to go through a Kafka-esque bureaucracy including being told by someone at the Motor Vehicle Administration that she couldn't prove that she was not a terrorist. [MORE]
Via Coffee Party USA
Tennessee Republican Brad Staats, a losing congressional candidate earlier this month, was arrested early Sunday morning on a domestic assault charge after police responded to a call from his wife claiming that he slapped her.
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By Robert Pear for The New York Times
Two plans, added to the Obama health law as a substitute for a pure government-run health insurance program, will be offered in every state. The national plans will compete directly with other private insurers and may have some significant advantages, including a federal seal of approval. Premiums and benefits for the multistate insurance plans will be negotiated by the United States Office of Personnel Management, the agency that arranges health benefits for federal employees.
Via Charles Lang
by Kim Dixon, Reuters Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein on Thursday became the latest big-name business leader to pledge to pay a steeper tax rate - 5 percent more, he said - in exchange for a long-term bipartisan deal in Congress to keep the country from falling off the "fiscal cliff." Blankfein is part of a group of corporate executives who have raised nearly $30 million to support a deal to avoid the nearly $600 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts set to take effect at the end of the year. Asked if he would pay 5 percent more in taxes if it became necessary for Congress to reach a deal, he said "Of course ... I don't know anybody who wouldn't." Blankfein, who characterized his political views as "center left," was interviewed Thursday along with Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson on CNBC. Blankfein also said there would be a "huge" positive impact on the economy if a bipartisan compromise were reached. "I'd be a buyer of the market," he said. [MORE]
Via Lynda Park
CHICAGO, Oct. 18, (UPI)
Ballot-qualified, third-party contenders for the U.S. presidency will hold their own debate next week in Chicago and stream it live on the Internet. Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode and Justice Party candidate Rocky Anderson confirmed they will participate Tuesday in the only debate among third-party candidates in Chicago, The Christian Science Monitor reported Wednesday. Former CNN host Larry King will moderate the 90-minute forum that will stream live on YouTube and Internet television network Ora.tv. The third-party candidates' debate represents American democracy at work, said Christina Tobin, co-moderator of the debate and founder of the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, the Chicago non-profit sponsoring the debate. "This debate is really about the fact that all elections should be free and equal," Tobin told the Monitor. [MORE]
Via Margaret Reeve Panahi
WASHINGTON - After a long period of consumer retrenchment, U.S. families have cut their once-out-of-control debt loads down to pre-recession levels, largely removing one major obstacle to a faster economic recovery. The amount of home mortgages, credit card debt and most other consumer liabilities now stands on par with 2006 or earlier, according to calculations by Moody's Analytics. The notable exception is student loans, which have skyrocketed in recent years, with people flooding into schools and college costs soaring. Overall, households today are paying less than 16% of after-tax income to cover debt payments and lease obligations, the smallest share since 1984, Federal Reserve data show.
Via Lynda Park
Representative Elijah Cummings and law experts say if they are targeting people of color, a court could find True the Vote operations unlawful. by Brentin Mock, Voting Rights Watch 2012 | The Nation Between the shenanigans uncovered by GOP operative Nathan Sproul and Strategic Allied Consulting with falsified voter registration forms, and the ongoing voter challenges waged by tea party groups “empowered” by True the Vote, Representative Elijah Cummings had seen enough to believe voter suppression might be in the queue for Election Day. Last week he sent a letter to True the Vote’s founder Catherine Engelbrecht requesting documents that would explain the ballot security organization’s operations. The letter in many ways was also a categorical rundown of recent True the Vote (or True the Vote–inspired) actions that suggest suppression if not intimidation are their modus operandi. The letter lists Engelbrecht stating at a Conservative Political Action Conference meeting that she “absolutely” was working to have the Obama administration replaced, hundreds of Ohio college students whose voter status were challenged incorrectly by True the Vote affiliate Ohio Voter Integrity Project, a black Ohio family incorrectly challenged by the same group, and more of the same false reporting in North Carolina and Cummings’ state of Maryland. Cummings wrote, “If these efforts are intentional, politically motivated, and widespread across multiple states, they could amount to a criminal conspiracy to deny legitimate voters their constitutional rights.” True the Vote has responded saying they would avail themselves “to any official House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform inquiry,” and has invited Representative Cummings to a briefing meeting and to participate in their poll watcher trainings. But they have not agreed to hand over the documents he has requested. ...J. Christian Adams, a former US Department of Justice attorney and True the Vote partner, was much harsher, writing on his blog that “Cummings needs to get himself a lawyer who knows more about election law and less about playing the race card. First of all, there is no federal statute which mentions ‘voter suppression.’” ...Adams point about “voter suppression” not being mentioned in federal law is only correct that those two words are literally not in the text. But the idea that voter suppression as an action is unaddressed by federal law is completely false, and it’s really a shame that Adams would attempt to make this point at all. Section 1985 of Title 42 of our federal laws states: "If two or more persons in any State or Territory conspire or go in disguise on the highway or on the premises of another, for the purpose of depriving, either directly or indirectly, any person or class of persons of the equal protection of the laws, or of equal privileges and immunities under the laws; … or if two or more persons conspire to prevent by force, intimidation, or threat, any citizen who is lawfully entitled to vote, from giving his support or advocacy in a legal manner, toward or in favor of the election of any lawfully qualified person as an elector for President or Vice President, or as a Member of Congress of the United States…" …Then they may sue the offending party. It may not have the word “suppression” spelled out, but we know what’s being described here. Law professor Simon Stern, a former clerk to a Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals judge and law lecturer at Harvard, explained to me that Section 1985 was originally part of the KKK Act of the 1870s and dealt with direct confrontation with newly freed African-Americans who were trying to vote. [MORE]
Via Eric Byler
by CHRIS MILES, Policy Mic On Meet the Press on Sunday morning, Mitt Romney supporter (and former GOP rival in the Republican presidential primaries) Newt Gingrich admitted that Romney wasn’t telling the truth about his tax plan. Ouch. Are even Republicans backing off the Romney tax spiel? In the first presidential debate earlier this week, the president charged that Romney's plans called for a $5 trillion tax cut. Romney has said he will cut taxes across-the-board and that his proposal would not harm the deficit, but would rather boost growth and revenues by eliminating loopholes. “I’m not looking for a $5 trillion tax cut. What I’ve said is I won’t put in place a tax cut that adds to the deficit,” said Romney during Wednesday's debate. The Obama campaign, however, says that Romney has failed to specify which loopholes and deductions he would target and that the plan would increase the tax burden on the middle class. The Obama campaign has shifted into a strategy of painting Romney in “lies, all lies” terms. [MORE]
Via Eric Byler
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