Brown overboard? GOP hero fails abortion litmus test
Scott Brown, I hope you enjoyed the adulation while it lasted. Not a week after he conquered the western world by returning Republicans to the majority, not just in the Senate, by a 41-59 supergap, but in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE by winning Ted Kennedy’s … sorry I keep doing that … I mean “the people’s” seat in Massachusetts, supposedly because everyone in Massachusetts hates President Obama … a LOT … Brown is proving to be a less than reliable right wing warrior.
Today, on “This Week,” he committed heresy on the subject of abortion (cue the Alan Keyes crazy talk!) and said that he would not be his party’s down the line 41st vote: Read more
The terrorist next door
Omar Hammami went from popular, bright high school kid to jihadi.
The New York Times Magazine runs a fascinating, long article by Andrea Elliott, which begs the question: can boredom turn a bright, conflicted kid into a terrorist?
New Miami Herald column: Dunn deal
I’ve got an extra column in the Herald this week, focusing on the deal the Miami commissioners extracted from their newly appointed colleague, Rev. Richard Dunn. Read it here.
Sarah Palin: ‘merge the tea party and the GOP’ (and give me my money!)
It's her party, now.
Sister Sarah isn’t backing down from next week’s for-profit tea party convention, and she plans to make a tidy profit of her own: more than $100,000 according to Mother Jones. Asked by Greta Van Susteren whether she planned to attend, after other prominent crazy ladies (hello, Michelle Bachman!) pulled out, along with other tea groups, and despite 500 unsold tickets. Her answer: “you betcha!” And Palin has a fine idea for how to grow the totally grassroots, not at all owned by anybody movement that is the tea parties: merge them with the GOP. Yeah! That’ll prove their independence!
Roeder convicted of Tiller murder in just 37 minutes
Convicted murderer Scott Roeder
It was an open and shut case, and never hinged on whether or not Scott Roeder, 51, shot Dr. George Tiller in the head while the doctor was attending a church service, because he admitted that he did just that (and there was a church full of witnesses.) Instead:
Roeder even admitted that he had planned the killing. The defendant’s lawyers argued only that the criminal charge should be something short of murder– voluntary manslaughter, perhaps– because Roeder said that he had killed Tiller in order to save others– unborn children– from harm.
Clearly, Tiller posed no harm to “unborn children” as he sat in the pews of a Lutheran church, in addition to the fact that Tiller’s practice, providing abortion services, is legal, even in Kansas. Read more
Obama gets feisty at the GOP gathering
President Obama finally got the chance to directly confront his critics on the Hill today, and I have to say, this was a damned good television, and a great showing by the president, who batted down Republican arguments like a champ. The much more combative, feisty Obama than we’ve seen at any time, including the campaign, fired back at the GOP’s no jobs from the stimulus claims by reminding them that the three months before the stimulus passed — December 2009, and January and February 2010, saw 600,000 and 700,000 job losses, which couldn’t be a result of a stimulus package that didn’t exist. He swatted down the charge that he rejected plans that would have created more jobs and cost half as much by saying “why would I oppose that?” … and he just slammed the party of no by saying that they’ve boxed themselves into not being able to work with him when they’ve simultaneously been going around saying “this guy is trying to create some Bolshevik plot to destroy America.” And he added that he can’t just adopt Republican proposals without some independent verification of the claims the GOP is making about their plans. The bottom line: Obama told the assembled GOPers that demonizing him does them, and the country, no good.
UPDATE: The reviews are in, and they’re staggeringly good. Ezra Klein has called the mini town hall “the most compelling piece of television I’ve seen, maybe ever.” And a Republican aide reportedly confided to Luke Russert that they shouldn’t have allowed cameras in. In other words, the House GOPers got played by the POTUS. More here. Meanwhile, Mike Pence and the GOP is out spinning the confab today, pushing hard to retire the “party of no” label.
Where has THIS guy been for a year? Watch the whole thing: (the Huffpo has the transcript)
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The temp, the plaintifs, and the D5 hustle
At a town hall meeting yesterday, according to WLRN, newly selected “caretaker” commissioner Richard Dunn (a/k/a “the temp,”) who already has his very own city email address, by the way, promised his constituents (from the audio, it sounded like there were about five people in the room…) that he would fight for them, primarily by demanding to be made chairman of the $100 million Community Redevelopment Agency that’s holding the money pot theoretically geared toward economic development in Overtown. Oh, here we go …
SSP: Joy discusses the MSJ suspension on “Issues” with Helen Ferre after the jump
Read more
Friday round-up: prefab homes for Haiti, Alito and Obama not friends
President Obama goes into the lion’s den today, to meet with House Republicans who have already made clear they’re not planning to cooperate with him, because they still see political advantage in saying “no.”
Oh, and before I forget: bye-bye, healthcare!
A South Florida architect has a great idea for housing Haiti’s estimated 800,000 homeless in the wake of the 1/12 earthquake: lightweight but sturdy, modular, temporary housing that can be built just down the road in Miami Gardens. The Miami Herald reports the easy-up homes, by influential Miami architect Andrés Duany (a stalwart on green building), are made from “nearly indestructible, space-age materials,” sleep eight people in bunk-like beds, and fold down to a 2-foot package than could easily be shipped to the island. Story here. Schematics of the modulars here.
Also in the Herald, get your Obama flip-flops! Perfect for wearing to the store in Miami, instead of those damned, fuzzy bedroom slippers!
The L.A. Times (and last night on CNN, Jeff Toobin) reports that there has been no flip-flop in the Barack Obama-Samuel Alito relationship. In short, it appears that Alito’s Joe Wilson moment at the SOTU after the president dared to call out the 5 judicial activists’ dreadful decision in the Citizens United / Corporations are People Too case, was just the latest opportunity for “Scalito” to show disdain for this president and his administration. According to Toobin, Alito was overheard at a dinner party not too long ago taking swipes at Joe Biden. But at least he showed up. Per the L.A. Times, Alito was the lone no-show at a reception Chief Horseman Roberts held for the soon-to-be-inaugurated president last January. Apparently, the animus has roots in Obama’s time as a Senator: Read more
5.7 percent
The economy grew more strongly than expected last quarter, and the 5.7 percent jump was the best since the third quarter of 2003. That’s great news for the economy — but not yet for workers (employment tends to be a lagging indicator.) But good news nonetheless! Economists are saying much of the growth was from companies replenishing their inventories, so in order for the growth to last, consumers and businesses are going to have to start spending (fourth quarter spending is almost always higher because of the Christmas holidays.) If not, government will have to do it, assuming we have a government with the cojones to do what needs to be done.
In Tampa, Crist braves the wrath of the teabaggers by shaking hands with the prez
Crist-Obama 2.0: no man hug this time, just a handshake
Brave Charlie Crist, knowing that he will soon be pounded by the teabag nation, dared to shake hands with the president of the United States today. The governor of the state also took the stalwart step of defending his role of bringing … gasp … money home to his state, the way in ordinary times, a governor is supposed to. In this case, Crist was in Tampa to say “hell yes!” to up to $2 billion for high speed rail, and the potential to create 2,300 badly needed new jobs. Now as we know, the real way to create jobs is to picket Washington with Michelle Bachman and a slew of misspelled, racist signage, or to do media interviews in which you rail against Washington while trying to get a job there … but for Charlie, who insists on doing things the hard way, this will have to do. Read more
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