My Congratulations to Barney Frank and James Ready…

This week Barney Frank became the first sitting US Congressman to be part of a same sex marriage. For that, he has my best wishes. This from the Raw Story:

Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) married his partner Saturday in his hometown of Newton, Massachusetts, making him the first sitting congressman to be in a same-sex marriage.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick officiated the ceremony between the 72 year-old Frank and his partner, James Ready, according to a statement from the congressman’s office. Frank met Ready in 2005, and the two have been seeing each other since 2007.

Many of Frank’s congressional colleagues turned out for the wedding, including former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, according to local media reports. In planning the event, Frank said he wanted to invite President Obama—who in May came out in support of same-sex marriage—but was worried the security detail would infringe on the ceremony.

This is sure a sign that we’re in the 21st Century.

Related articles

• Barney Frank marries longtime partner (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)
• Rep. Barney Frank marries longtime partner – CBS News (cbsnews.com)
• Barney Frank weds partner in Massachusetts (twitchy.com)
• “It was no different than any other wedding I’ve attended when you have two people who are in…” (shortformblog.com)
• Congratulations, Barney and Jim! (crooksandliars.com)

Quote of the Day – everything in perspective

“Now, Teddy can rest.”

– House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to Vicki Kennedy, widow of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA)

Quote of the Day – Stock Politician Statement #7

“Congressman Weiner departed this morning to seek professional treatment to focus on becoming a better husband and healthier person. In light of that, he will request a short leave of absence from the House of Representatives so that he can get evaluated and map out a course of treatment to make himself well.”

Weiner spokeswoman, Risa Heller

What clinic treats Twitter stupidity?

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• Anthony Weiner Takes Leave of Absence from Congress, Seeks Professional Help (thehollywoodgossip.com)
• Weiner says he’ll get help, take leave from Congress (ctv.ca)
• Weiner Heads To Rehab As Pelosi, Party Leaders Call On Him To Resign (annem040359.wordpress.com)

Ed Schultz Apologizes to Laura Ingraham… who apologizes to no one…

As I started watching the Ed Show tonight on MSNBC, Ed came out and did a long apology to Laura Ingraham, to MSNBC, to his wife and family and to his audience for making a low and insulting statement, apparently as an improvisation, on his radio show.

This was the statement:

“President Obama is going to be visiting Joplin, Missouri, on Sunday, but you know, like this right-wing slut — What’s her name, Laura Ingraham — Yeah, she’s a talk slut.

“You see, she was back in the days, praising President Reagan when he was drinking a beer overseas.  But now that Obama’s doing it, they’re working him over.”

In his statement, Ed said he had been trying to get Ingraham on the phone to apologize in person, has left a message stating his apology and will continue trying to reach her.

Ingraham responded with cool understatement and claws extended.

“I was surprised to learn that Ed Schultz actually hosted a radio show,” she said.  “Is it available only on line.”

Ingraham added a remark about “men who preach civility but practice misogyny.”

Of course, Ingraham is famous for insulting Obama and his family… like this graphic on her web site:

Separated at Birth

Michelle Obama Irish pop group Jedward

Then there was her statement on Nancy Pelosi in November of 2009:

“Nancy Pelosi basically did everything except sell her own body” (to pass health care reform bill).

There was her comment about how “black people” love ribs, followed by another statement on Michelle Obama back in November of 2010:

“Michelle’s lunch was baby back ribs. Afternoon snack, more ribs. Bedtime snack, the last three ribs!”

To date, I’ve never heard Laura Ingraham apologize to anyone… and, you know, she IS a talk slut.

Related articles

• Democrat’s Civility – Call Republican Woman a SLUT on National TV (dewgeneral.wordpress.com)
• MSNBC’s Ed Schultz suspended after calling Laura Ingraham a “Right-Wing Talk Slut.” (chicagonow.com)
• More misogyny at MSNBC: Neanderthal host attacks Laura Ingraham as a “slut” (michellemalkin.com)
• Harry Alford of the Black Chamber of Commerce talks to Laura Ingram on Obama (politics.ie)

Did you get this message from Nancy Pelosi last night?

I did. here it is:

Nancy Pelosi

Victories like this are what happen when we fight together to protect our core Democratic values.

Congresswoman-elect Hochul’s victory in a staunchly-Republican district has shocked the political world and sent an unmistakable sign that the American people will not stand for the Republicans’ reckless and extreme agenda to end Medicare.

This is our third straight special election victory in New York — and it is truly one for the ages. All of the Republicans’ right-wing outside groups with their secret money and dishonest attacks were no match for the combined strength of grassroots Democrats.

Thank you again for fighting to protect and defend Medicare and bringing us one step closer to regaining our Democratic House Majority.

Nancy Pelosi
Democratic Leader

Hopefully, this is the start of taking back the House from the crazies.

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• NY-26: Kathy Hochul victory thread (dailykos.com)
• Democrats win upset New York victory (politics.ie)
• What NY-26 Means for 2012 (politicalwire.com)
• Referendum on Medicare? Dem Wins Special Election in GOP-Leaning NY-26 (abcnews.go.com)
• Nancy Pelosi squeezes Paul Ryan on Medicare (thehill.com)
• Pelosi effective foil for GOP? (politico.com)
• New York Special Election: Medicare Will Be Issue Of 2012 (huffingtonpost.com)
• Democrat Kathy Hochul wins upstate NY race – Reuters (news.google.com)
• New York’s Extra Special Election: A GOP Wake-Up Call? (swampland.time.com)

Boehner already in tears as he is escorted in to take over the House…

Crybaby Boehner is now the Speaker of the House and those of us watching on C-Span got to see him wipe the tears out of his eyes as he entered and stood next to Nancy Pelosi on the podium.

Knowing that families and children of Congress folk were in the House for the event, this sets the best possible example for them all.

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• The Boehner Bunch Celebrates the New House Speaker (thedailybeast.com)
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From Andrew Leonard in this morning’s Salon:

clipped from www.salon.com   Democrats concede: the tax cut deal passes Angry House members bow to the same political reality that forced Obama to bend the knee…   Pelosi So this is what bipartisan unity looks like. Rush Limbaugh and Nancy Pelosi agree on at least one thing — they really, really didn’t want to pass Obama’s tax cut deal. But in the end, House Democrats bowed to the same reality that brought the White House to the bargaining table — after the thumping of the midterm elections, they had no leverage to cut a good deal.So after a very long day, with the clock about to strike midnight on the east coast, Democrats and Republicans joined together to approve the deal, by a handy margin, 277-148 The final vote was not, however, as overwhelming as the Senate’s 81-19 total. 111 Democrat representatives dissented, and they did not look like happy campers, as the stood, arms folded across their chests, as the final votes were tallied.

Excuse me while I puke… this sucks!

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• HuffPost TV: WATCH: Roy Sekoff Says Obama ‘Just Not That Into’ Tax Cuts For The Rich (huffingtonpost.com)
• House passes tax deal to send it to President Obama (cnn.com)
• Congress Passes Sweeping Tax Bill, Sends It to Obama’s Desk (foxnews.com)

Wednesday morning as we proceed down the drain…

Here it is, 30 years to the day, the anniversary of the death of John Lennon at the hands of a young loony. Thirty years! We still listen to Lennon’s music (iTunes has just released all the Beatles stuff for the first time – including the later Lennon stuff) and kids who weren’t even born when Lennon died are just discovering the Beatles and Lennon and buying it up.

From my point of view, it brings me back to a time when we were trying to Give Peace A Chance because All We Need(ed) Is Love. But it didn’t happen. We went into war after war… we blew our budgets and debt up like Macy’s Parade balloons… we put ourselves into a split society which is killing itself (and not slowly any more.) For example: this week we are working as hard as we can to sell our bodies and souls to China and Saudi Arabia by increasing our debt and getting little in return.

This morning I’m watching the comments of Representatives (mostly Democrats) who are pretty pissed off. I hear that Joe Biden is meeting with the House Dems today to tell them that “the deal’s not sealed.” Yeah, sure. This is how they are going to hold Nancy Pelosi off.

The Senate is going to spend a big part of their morning with the ongoing Impeachment Trial of Judge Thomas Porteous. This has been taking up their time all week and, of course, is not taking care of the things the people need to get down to. Only 8 days left, guys.

As to what the Senate is going to do with the Tax Cut Extension legislation, seeing they have to get 60 votes to do anything (thanks to the Republicans requiring the filibuster level vote for EVERYTHING), I’m not sure what’s going to happen. And there are a bunch of Democrats, and the Independent Bernie Sanders, who will do what they can to keep the Obama agreement from going through as well. If we get through December 31 without the Congress passing on this, then the Tax Cut is ended and the taxes go back into play across the board.

And what are we going to do. As the voters, the population as a whole, and 98% of us not rich enough to benefit from what’s going an and all of us split into groups that are designed to not get along with each other by the political controllers who the rich have put into place, what can we do? We write blogs, send letter, call offices and everything else we can do to get our two cents in, and it doesn’t seem to matter.

And as I write this, Judge Porteous seems to be being found GUILTY by a unanimous Senate (at least on article 1 for having a “corrupt financial relationship” with a law firm and failing to recuse himself from a case). Watching these concerned Senators stand up 1 by 1 to vote “guilty” is pretty impressive, considering how many of them, to me are just as guilty of covering up so many things and flat out lying to voters during their campaigns. It reminds me of the lyric from Fiorello, “the only crime is to be caught.”

Have a nice day, folks.

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• Senate Begins Impeachment Trial of Federal District Judge Thomas Porteous (volokh.com)
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• Senate to hold rare impeachment trial for judge (politico.com)
• Imagine | 30 Years Later (onemann.blogspot.com)
• John Lennon Death Anniversary: John Lennon Quotes, Facts, Videos (nowpublic.com)
• “Socialist Bernie Sanders Threatens to Filibuster Obama Tax Deal With Republicans” and related posts (nalert.blogspot.com)
• Remembering John Lennon, by the numbers (cleveland.com)
• The Day John Lennon Died (mirror.co.uk)
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• You: Lennon: Forever young 30 years after death (france24.com)

At this point, I think Obama has kissed Democrats goodbye…

As of this morning it seems that Obama is ready to deal with the Right… extend the Bush tax cuts for a couple of years in exchange for one year’s extension of Unemployment funding. The tax cut deal is tentative. It hasn’t gone through Congress yet (although McConnell is probably dribbling with laughter in his office), but it probably will.

When even Conservatives like Joe Scarborough sees and comments on the fact that Obama is moving directly to the Right…
which will not increase job creation much, but will add at least a trillion new bucks to the deficit…we know it’s a lot of money.  And who is going to lend it to us? The Chinese? Are we going to listen to Obama’s financial team that extending tax cuts are going to get us out of recession?

And now we won’t be able to blame this crap on Bush anymore. Obama owns it and is most likely making himself a one-term President. And a lot of very unhappy Democrats like me will probably help him to become a one-termer. As Joe Scarborough just said: “At least they can’t call him a Socialist any more.”

I think it is up to Nancy Pelosi (certainly not Harry Reid) to try to hold this arrangement off… and, as I have said before, it would be better to have this whole arrangement with the Right flushed down the toilet and get NO tax cut extensions for ANYONE, than to do anything like what is coming out of the White House. (Steny Hoyer, however, will go along with it… miserable power seeker… and will undermine Pelosi.)

So now we have to pay for increased troops in Afghanistan where we are getting nowhere even faster than before, we have to suffer increasing rather than decreasing unemployment making our tax revenues even lower, and we can look forward to a GOP-controlled future… amazing with a Democratic White House and Senate… which will take us further from the America that was built by generations of progressive leaders from Roosevelt (FDR) through Johnson.

If the Tea Party takeover has taught us anything, it is that we need a new grass-roots progressive movement. And we have to push from the ground up. It’s going to take 30 years.

At least.

Does anyone trust these guys?

The Bush Tax Cuts for Millionaires and Billionaires… will they get extended? This from FireDogLake today:

clipped from fdlaction.firedoglake.com Michael Bennet gets caught in a moment of rare honesty with an open mike in the Senate: “It’s all rigged. The whole conversation is rigged. The fact that we don’t get to a discussion before the break about what we’re going to do in the lame duck. It’s just rigged.” Of course it is. They know what they want — a deal to extend all the Bush tax cuts for two to three years. It’s just a matter of how the Democrats can set the Republicans up to take the blame, yet not do it in a way that causes political blowback for them. They tried for months to get the Republicans to share the blame for the health care bill, and couldn’t pull that off either, so I doubt their competence has improved significantly. So, Nancy Pelosi will preside over her little piece of stunt theater today in the House, taking a meaningless vote that will surprise nobody when it fails because she set the bar for success at 290 votes, which they can’t possibly hope to achieve. But gosh darn it, they tried

… and this from FireDogLake’s Founder. Jane Hamsher:

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C-Span’s Washington Journal is discussing the House Democratic Leadership Election…

To start with, Senator McConnell and Representative Boehner have exercised their power by telling President Obama’s office that they can’t make the meeting he scheduled two weeks ago to speak with the Caucus Leaders… they’ve gotten it postponed to November 3oth. I’m pretty sure they didn’t have to do this…but they are certainly trying to make it clear who is in charge.

That out of the way, I’m listening to Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D – Oregon) who is certain that Nancy Pelosi will be the overwhelming winner in the Leadership election among House Democrats. Blumenauer says he wishes that yesterday’s meetings on the subject had been open… they were not… so that the country could see that the Democrats are actually unified in their move into the minority. I’m not sure if that is really true, although we’ve gone from 16 to 5 Blue Dog Democrats, which should leave us with a majority of progressives, and Pelosi is the likely lead in the Liberal/Progressive community.

If Pelosi IS elected (which will probably happen today or tomorrow), it will be a message to Obama to get with the program and join the Progressives who didn’t abandon America as he seems to have done with his “cooperation” with the Republicans (who, as we see from the first item in this post, have no interest in cooperating with him.)

What all this means for the Lame Duck Session will become obvious very quickly (it is not a long session as it is) and the future activity of Congress in the next two years will be very predictable.

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Quote of the Day – What in Hell is Obama Doing?

While Obama still has a Democratic majority for the Lame Duck Session, it appears that he has decided to cave into the Republicans on the Bush Tax Cuts extensions and give the rich the cuts they…deserve? That’s why someone like MaryScott O’Connor hits the nail on the head:

MaryScott O’Connor  Commented 3 hours ago

“I’m shocked, SHOCKED to find this Administration bending over for the Republicans again. And by “shocked” I mean… totally unsurprised. What a total WIMP this man has turned out to be. Or… I guess I should say… next to Clinton… Obama is the best Republican President we’ve ever had? What a desolation.”

I guess I have to say that my support for Obama is slipping rapidly. I don’t so much care that he gives in, but that he DOES NOT FIGHT for the things we know to be necessary. In fact, I’d rather be taxed as a member of the Middle Class and help us get away from the deficit than to make sure the rich take out infinitely more than any of the bottom 99%.

What is this man doing? Does he not talk with liberals or progressives? Does he not hear even old guard Repubs like David Stockton who made a statement last Sunday that it was time to back away from the “cut taxes” mentality he introduced under Reagan?

Doesn’t Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi stick a nose in here and vow to get the changes we all hoped for?

I’m utterly pissed!

The Republicans are working overtime to try to keep Pelosi from being the Minority Leader…

…as I heard while listening to Congressman Anthony Weiner on Chris Matthews a few minutes ago. For some reason, Chris Matthews is pushing the idea that Nancy wants the leadership so that Steny Hoyer can’t get it. What?

The reason why Republicans are working to have Nancy Pelosi de-powered is because they are AFRAID of her.

And well they should be. She has a major support base, she gets things done, and she will prevent Republicans now in the majority from getting things they want through. She is smart, has been Minority Leader before, and she knows all the tricks. The sweating and crying John Boehner must be sweating and crying even more.

I know she has my support!

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Quote of the Day – Nancy Pelosi on comments made by Newt Gingrich:

“Let me just say this: One of these days, in the far future, when I’m not Speaker anymore, I will be irrelevant.”

– Nancy Pelosi

She hits it right on the head. The nail, that is.

Nancy Pelosi says there are not enough votes in the Senate for a Public Option…

… and that’s why she’s keeping it out of the House bill. However, Progressive Chance Campaign Committee, Democracy for America, and Credo Action have put together a television ad (that they are raising funds to get on right away) which says the votes ARE there by looking at statements made by the so far uncommitted Senate members.

Take a look:

They are looking for $3.00 contributions from as many people possible… and they need it NOW. Go HERE if you can make a contribution.

I am losing the last ounce of trust I have in these Bozos.

So who do we listen to?

Ed Schultz says we have 51 votes for the Public Option in the Senate, even though Nancy Pelosi says the House won’t vote for a PO because the Senate has no votes for it.

Dick Durbin is pushing for a No PO vote because he says there are not the votes.

So who is right and who is screwing with us?

This from the Friday ED Show:

3:55 PM – BREAKING NEWS – Pelosi says CAN DO!

The House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi has just let out the word that the House CAN pass the Senate’s Health Care Bill provided that refinements can be made later. This was just announced… hasn’t even turned up on HuffPo yet.  More later.

This from Chris Bowers at OPEN LEFT:

clipped from www.openleft.com House to Unveil Health Care Bill Tomorrow At 10 a.m. The Democratic leadership in the House is in the final stages of putting together their health care reform bill.  As I already mentioned, they are meeting at 2:45 p.m. eastern, to go over the whip counts, and determine what sort of public option to include in the bill.   We will know their decision for certain at 10 a.m., eastern, tomorrow morning.  This is because, according to an email sent to Democrats on Capitol Hill today, “Speaker Pelosi, Leadership and Members of the House Democratic Caucus” are holding “an event tomorrow on health insurance reform” at 10 a.m. at the West Front of the US Capitol. That event can only mean one thing: they are unveiling the bill which they will send to the floor. The odds are not great that they will include the Medicare +5% public option, but we are still giving it one last shot anyway.

Guess we’ll see where the House is going to fit with the Senate. Not sure how their Public Option will look… but it seems to get a little weaker every day.