RIP DADT

That is over:

President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen certified Friday that the U.S. military is prepared to accept openly gay and lesbian service members, and that doing so will not harm military readiness, according to the White House.

Under a bill passed last year that set up a process for repealing the controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, all three men needed to sign a certification that confirms the military’s ability to accept the integration of openly gay and lesbian troops.

A 60-day waiting period will now begin before the repeal is fully implemented.

Yeah, but we’re tired of hearing about Lily Ledbetter DADT and if Obama really cared about gay people, he would use the bully pulpit and get rid of the 60 day waiting period. I’m not lifting a finger to get him re-elected.

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Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) Co-Founder Aaron Swartz Indicted for Wire and Computer Fraud***

But you should totally sign their petition.

As if being run by grifter Adam Green (to whom you should totally send three dollars, by the way) isn’t enough to stain PCCC and Bold Progressives’s reputation, PCCC’s co-founder Aaron Swartz was indicted for mail fraud today.

From AP,

A Harvard University fellow who was studying ethics was charged with hacking into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s computer network to steal nearly 5 million academic articles.

Aaron Swartz, 24, of Cambridge, was accused of stealing the documents from JSTOR, a popular research subscription service that offers digitized copies of more than 1,000 academic journals and documents, some dating back to the 17th century.

In an indictment released Tuesday, prosecutors say Swartz stole 4.8 million articles between September 2010 and January after breaking into a computer wiring closet on MIT’s campus. Swartz, a student at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, downloaded so many documents during one October day that some of JSTOR’s computer servers crashed, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors say Swartz intended to distribute the articles on file-sharing websites.

Swartz turned himself in Tuesday and was arraigned in U.S. District Court, where he pleaded not guilty to charges including wire fraud, computer fraud and unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer. He was released on $100,000 unsecured bond and faces up to 35 years in prison, if convicted.

[snip]

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The Record

The Benenator 2000:

What’s more, it’s a heartening piece that fits into a larger mosaic. After two-and-a-half years, President Obama has successfully repealed the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law; expanded federal benefits for the same-sex partners of executive-branch employees; signed the Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law; cleared the way for hospital-visitation rights for same-sex couples; lifted the travel/immigration ban on those with HIV/AIDS; ordered the Federal Housing Authority to no longer consider the sexual orientation of applicants on loans; expanded the Census to include the number of people who report being in a same-sex relationship; and hired more openly gay officials than any administration in history.

There have also been more symbolic gestures, including the White House hosting an event to honor the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, announcing the first-ever transgender presidential appointee, nominating the first openly-gay man to serve on the federal judiciary, honoring same-sex couples in his Mother’s Day and Father’s Day proclamations, recording a video for the “It Gets Better” Project, and hosting Gay and Lesbian Pride Month events at the White House.

And today, the president has offered his well-timed endorsement of the Respect For Marriage Act.

On top of that, there was this:

The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Monday to confirm J. Paul Oetken as a district court judge, making him the first openly gay man appointed to the federal bench.

Oetken, 45, will fill a vacancy on the high-profile Southern District of New York. He’s worked in-house at Cablevision Systems Corp. since 2004, most recently as senior vice president and associate general counsel. President Barack Obama nominated him in January.

And yet still, we have activists who say stupid shit like Obama being the most anti-gay President or that they won’t lift a finger to get him re-elected and other nonsense too numerous to even document (All together now, let’s whine: “We’re tired of hearing about Lily Ledbetter!”). It all boils down to “look at me, look at me” as far as I am concerned.

“But John, you just don’t know the role of an activist! It’s to push for more!” Maybe I don’t know the role of the new breed of narcissistic activist that seems to dominate our discourse, but it seems to me the role of activism would be to reward those who advance your issue, punish those who hurt it, and try to push for more change. Not to throw hissy fits and not only throw out the baby with the bathwater, but to half-hang it, kick it, call it names, and then when the baby is dead and gone, claim that it was your actions that saved the day and advanced the cause.

One person has been slowly giving people the change they need, slowly, methodically moving forward, without a lot of show and with little to no thanks. Pro-tip- that person isn’t one of the loudmouths out screaming at a certain President about some fat preacher speaking at his inauguration, and it sure as hell isn’t a member of the GOP, who will be rewearded if we listen to our “activists.”

I know whose side I am on. I wish the clowns did, too.

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That Sound You Hear

Is a progressive netroots primal scream as anonymous sources claim Obama has given up trying to get Warren confirmed as the head of the CFPB.

This shows you how out of the loop I am, because I thought we had already gone through this and thought she was running for Senate in Mass.

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Jane Hamsher Calls Obama Supporters “Dumb Motherfuckers.”

Hey, it’s better than Joan Walsh’s favorite term: Obamalovers

Keep your eye on Firedoglake, people. That ship is sinking fast. Jane Hamsher is suffering stage 5 Obama Derangement Syndrome. It’s so bad that she is now ignoring what Democratic aides have reported regarding Obama’s meeting with Cantor, and is sucking the milk from Cantor’s teat:

For the record I don’t think it’s a big deal if Obama has to take sole responsibility for raising the debt limit. But he does.

It undermines his intention to run in 2012 as the “fiscally responsible” guy who closed the deficit, and that’s why he is cussing mad. Well, that and the fact that he has to undergo ritual humiliation at the hands of the GOP every 2 months to get what he wants.

The irony is that the Obamabots are so out of touch with who Obama is and what he wants they don’t realize that by cheering for the McConnell deal, and his prowess in making McConnell “blink,” it amounts to twisting the knife for him. It makes it impossible for him to reject the deal the end — which empowers the GOP to hold out.

Cantor offered a temporary extension three times last night, and by both Democratic and GOP accounts, that’s what made Obama snap. He wouldn’t be rejecting it “even if it brings my presidency down,” and taking his case to the American people, if he thought he had scored some big victory.

You gotta feel sorry for the guy. His most ardent supporters are the dumbest motherfuckers in the world, and they don’t realize he thinks they are digging his political grave.

At this point, Jane Hamsher is a parody of herself. She spews whatever brain jizz happens to be coagulating in her mind directly into the faces of her sycophants, and they lap that shit up like their only dream in life is to play the role of Hamsher PermaFluffer. I mean, it’s downright comical.

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How the game is played

Whenever the village embraces a new “serious” idea to help Liberals and Democrats you can be sure that it will end up with roots in the manure generated by the concerned trolling of some denizen of Wingnutopia.

You can see how this is done with a reality-free bit of drivel from a typing monkey on Tucker Carlson’s parasitic Daily Caller. In his “How the Tea Party can win the left”, James Poulos posits that hate of government can and should be the glue that binds liberals and the Tea Party together. He further argues that only by embracing the Glibertarian unicorn can both the left and right be saved from the horror that is Barack Obama. In his regurgitation of very tired wingnut talking points, Poulas claims that Liberals are angrier at Obama than they were at LBJ back in the day—of course, no evidence or facts are offered to support this regularly debunked claim that massive swarms of Liberals hate Obama. Poulos also explains that Liberals are hopeless and will be forced to vote for Obama because they have no place to go. Then he offers up the Tea Party as the last great progressive hope in the Nation. It is complete nonsense that only a Firebagger could love. And yet, it is nonsense that Conor Friedersdorf finds “provocative”.

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A Simple Question

I’ve been away for a couple of weeks, posting sporadically and not reading as much as usual, so I’m not fully up to date on the “Obama sold out Social Security” discussion. Now that Boehner has caved, can someone explain why anyone took the notion that Republicans would means test Medicare seriously? Wouldn’t that have been the most widespread, noticeable and politically unpalatable tax increase on the wealthy (and semi-wealthy) that Republicans could advocate? I was willing to buy that Democrats would agree to some kind of Medicare means test as a part of some grand compromise, but I could never see how Republicans would accept it.

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Just Fucking Kill Me

These people are fucking clinical:

Any good liberal in the year 2011 would be confused when choosing between Obama and Bush for the title of “Worst President Ever.”

Fuck these lunatics. Fucking sociopaths.

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A penny for your outrage

It has gotten pretty predictable—and a bit boring. The grifters are out in force and running the same old scams. Over and over and over. The Republican Party and conservative movement in America has been completely captured by grifters. It is just stunning to see a crook like Grover Norquist with more power than anybody on the Right. He is the triumph of single issue grifter politics.

And grifters plying their trade in Democratic and/or Progressive waters are jealous of Grover and his fellow traveler wingnut bandits. It was not a surprise to learn that apprentice grifters like Jane Hamsher have been working with Grover to learn the secrets of the trade: control the message, take ownership of an issue, develop “media” contacts to carry your message, and—most importantly—cash in.

A little item published earlier today in Pravda on the Potomac (no link for them) worked hard to sell the con:

We know how this will end and that the pattern will be repeated. The issue really doesn’t matter at all. It also doesn’t matter if the con is sold with a Conservative or Progressive frame. The pattern is always the same and it is all so predictable.

A trigger is published in the media from a speculative source. It will outrage the single issue grifters. Anything that happens or doesn’t happen will will be used to pimp the urgency of their rage. Any thin reed of speculation will be sensationalized with text crafted to maximize search engine optimization, buzz and clicks. The gullible will believe the lies and give the grifters their emails and their money. Almost everything said to promote the outrage will be wrong, but that will not matter if the grifter can control the narrative. Fools will parrot their outrage talking points, give them money and some small measure of political power.

Eventually, reality will settle in and only the extremely stupid will still buy the con hook, line and sinker. But by then, the grifters will have move on to another manufactured outrage and mo money for them from the fools among us.

John is right in his earlier post. Summer is the season of stupid in America—August especially.

Today it is the negotiations on the debt. When it is resolved, a fresh appeal to fear and rage will be manufactured. The outrage industry is absolutely boring and predictable. I consider these grifters from Grover to Jane and find myself thinking of tar and feathers as I stake my tomato plants. And yet, what the world really needs is another Open Thread. Please use this one to correct all the mistakes made on the internets.

Cheers

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White House Position on Social Security is Unchanged.

It must be really fun for WaPo and NYT to cause a Massive Emo Freakout simply by quoting anonymous sources who are “familiar with the President’s thinking” (or whatever), innit?

White House spokesman Jay Carney several times during Wednesday’s press briefing criticized a report in the Washington Post, saying the reporter “overwrote” it and questioning the motives of the story’s sources.

[snip]
When asked what Carney and the President mean when they say the White House is opposed to “slashing” Social Security benefits, Carney would not characterize their interpretation of what level of cuts or modifications would be acceptable.

“The President is interested in strengthening Social Security in the long term in ways that preserve the promise of the program and don’t slash benefits…,” Carney said. “I’m not going to get into line items and how you achieve that.”

“Slash it’s like that,” Carney said, bringing down his arm in a downward movement, “A significant whack…I think slashing is pretty sharp. It’s not the same thing as cut, it’s a slash…and I don’t mean the guitarist.”

How are people not smarter than this by now? Didn’t we just go through this in April with the Massive Budget Freakout? And didn’t the reports of Obama pre-caving and pre-selling us out turn out to be dumbassery?

Crikey.

P.S. Someone tell Josh Marshall that the “Stunned Dems” screaming headline seems like overkill given the facts that are trickling out about the BS nature of the WaPo and NYT articles.

[It’s mah birfdeh, so I’m not going to be around to play in the comments section. HIDIDDLY HO! -ABLxx]

[cross-posted]

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Jane Hamsher’s “Afro-American” Reeducation Program Rolls Through Washington, D.C. (and Other Ratfucking Tales)

(Update from John below)

Roll out!

For those who have not yet read Dana Houle’s post about Jane Hamsher’s duplicity, you should do so. The article speaks for itself. For my part, the revelation is unsurprising. Also unsurprising? That her acolytes rush to defend her, usually with some version of the “Obama sucks” song.

I suspect, however, that while their cognitive dissonance won’t permit them to draw the obvious conclusion—that Hamsher has played them like a fiddle, spouting her special brand of Obama Derangement in order to loosen their wallets —it is still necessary to draw attention to her chicanery in the hopes that the media will stop treating Hamsher like she is some Progressive darling when she so plainly is nothing of the sort. (And when she selectively edits her appearances on the MSM in order to make herself seem more politically savvy than she is.)

I’m sure I need not remind you of Jane’s purported loathing for people who attack Democrats from the outside. You know… veal pen and all that. So what does one call heading up a company that sells ads for Republicans? Elephant Pen, perhaps?

What does one call a person who heads up a company that sells ads for Republican and who simultaneously systematically attacks Democrats (Obama, Reid, etc.), while seemingly doing NOTHING ELSE?

Ratfucker. That’s what.

In fact, Matt Osborne of Osborne Ink and Crooks and Liars wrote about Hamsher’s ratfuckery months ago—“Nixon Had A Word for People Like Jane Hamsher”—and drew this response from Kevin Gosztola: “Jane Hamsher is No “Ratfucker” (And She Shouldn’t Be Required to Show Progressive Credentials Either) – with Updates.” Even Gosztola, however, had to recognize a bit of double-dealing:

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Anyone Who Ever Played a Part

Reader Tom sent me a link to this post that makes a whole lot out of a little fact about Jane Hamsher’s advertising company, CommonSense Media. That little fact is that Jane’s company apparently does work for both Democrats and Republicans. There’s no indication of which Republicans, or how many. I’m not going to jump to the same conclusions as the writer of that post, but it is worth noting.

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We Had Other Things to Do

This is just sad:

Something I should say is that this whole “floors not ceilings” thing with regard to campaign finance reform shouldn’t be taken as just something to say in response to calls for contribution limits. Even relatively modest public financing would, if applied systematically, really transform the American political system. Consider, for example, this story about how only fifteen percent of Virginia House of Delegates seats are being contested.

Where is the activist base, you know, the real base, the ones who make everything happen and the rest of you should just stfu and follow their lead. Well, they’ve been busy with other important shit:

A group of around ten women in Muslim headscarves crashed the RightOnline conference for about ten minutes Saturday, protesting what they said was an incident targeting Muslim women Thursday night.

A spokesperson for the group of women told TPM they weren’t sure of the identity of the man responsible for the Thursday incident—when two hijab-wearing women were followed by a man with a cell phone camera who reportedly asked them why they were dressed the way they were “in America”—but rumors that the incident involved an employee of conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart were rampant at Netroots.

It was partially a confrontation over those rumors that caused the Breitbart kerfuffle at Netroots Friday.

The women who arrived at RightOnline were Netroots attendees, and were accompanied by blogger John Aravosis and gay rights advocate/provocateur Dan Choi.

And what else has the “real base,” the ones who get Democrats elected, been up to:

Republican presidential candidate and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty was glitter-bombed by two female activists during a stop in San Francisco on Thursday.

The bombardment came less than a month after a gay activist showered Pawlenty’s GOP rival Newt Gingrich with glittery confetti.

Pawlenty was signing copies of his new memoir “Courage to Stand” when Nancy Mancias and Chelsea Byers, representatives of anti-war group CODEPINK, began dumping the pink sprinkles over his head.

We need better activists. We need more people like Kay- folks who go to local meetings, organize, and get out the vote. We don’t need any more grandstanding jackasses trampling innocents in attempts to get in front of a camera to promote themselves while telling the rest of us to go to hell. Basically, what we need is you and me to get off our asses and do what we did in 2008- volunteer, go door to door, man phone banks, donate money, and all the hard work that actually brings about change.

I challenge each and every one of you to call a local or national democratic organization in the next few days and offer to volunteer your time. Sit down and think of a realistic amount of time you can offer every week until November 2012, and then beyond. I will do the same.

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And Now the Hive Mind Consumes DDay

This is just sad, because I really like D-Day:

We now have an innovation in executive power. During the Bush Administration, mid-level functionaries would be found to write legal justifications for waging war, committing acts of torture, or what have you. Now, during the Obama Administration, the top lawyers are free to give their considered opinion on these issues. But the President will simply overrule them, as Charlie Savage writes today:

So what did Charlie Savage actually say:

Jeh C. Johnson, the Pentagon general counsel, and Caroline D. Krass, the acting head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, had told the White House that they believed that the United States military’s activities in the NATO-led air war amounted to “hostilities.” Under the War Powers Resolution, that would have required Mr. Obama to terminate or scale back the mission after May 20.

But Mr. Obama decided instead to adopt the legal analysis of several other senior members of his legal team — including the White House counsel, Robert Bauer, and the State Department legal adviser, Harold H. Koh — who argued that the United States military’s activities fell short of “hostilities.” Under that view, Mr. Obama needed no permission from Congress to continue the mission unchanged.

In other words, he got conflicting legal advice, and went with Koh and Bauer over Johnson and Krass. Personally, I think it is ridiculous that what we are doing doesn’t amount to hostilities, and have said as much. If Mexico were occasionally launching drone attacks across our border and helping China bomb us by providing radar-jamming and surveillance, I imagine we would have a far less nuanced idea of what “hostilities” means. But still, there is no reason to simply lie about what happened in order to compare Obama to Bush. Obama didn’t “ignore” their advice. This is in no way comparable to having low level hacks just make shit up as Bush did. He had conflicting advice, and he went in a different direction. This happens every single day with every single decision the President makes.

But I guess that isn’t breathless enough for some circles, where you have outright lunatics writing things like this:

Based on these reassuring words, the response is supposed to be, “well, gosh, the alternative is worse, so I guess we should still vote for Obama.”

No. Just no. You’ve had your chance to prove you are indeed different, and you’ve failed on every front. Even though I have often decried the intolerant, inhumane, radical extremism, nuttiness and willful ignorance of what the Tea-GOP has become, I no longer believe that President Obama is meaningly different from what President Mitt Romney would be or indeed would have been.

And as I could never vote for the unprincipled moral chameleon Romney, I cannot vote again for a faux Democrat whose policies and moral sentiments now seem little different from Romney’s.

I defy any Obama spokesperson to point out any meaningful difference between what Obama has done and what a President Romney would have done.

Justices Kagan and Sotomayor.
ACA
Lily Ledbetter
DADT

Do I need to go on? Fucking idiots. Some days I think these guys truly deserve to live under a President Palin.

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The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Russ Feingold thinks Democrats should raise money on “people power” and not fund “superPACs” that take corporate donations in the same way that Crossroads GPS does.

I’m as disgusted by Citizens United as anyone, but this is the kind of thinking that just kills Democrats. First, nobody really cares if Democrats follow a different, more pristine set of campaign finance rules. There’s a ton of corporate money in politics today, and Citizens United puts even more money into play. That money has and will influence races. The solution isn’t to create new rules that make Democrats even more likely to lose to Republicans, by having them go into a fight with one hand tied behind their backs.

Probably less important but more maddening is how this kind of informal rule-making turns into a distraction. We see this all the time in races where Republicans and media, for whom the cheap “hypocrisy” story line is endlessly seductive, band together to make the Democratic candidate who supports campaign finance reform look like a hypocrite for taking corporate donations. It’s hard enough for candidates to explain how they can hope for a future without huge corporate donations, but they have to live in a present where these donations are a fact of life. A new set of informal campaign finance rules gives media and opponents a whole host of new ways to call the Democratic candidate a hypocrite for getting the support of Democratic superPACS, at the same time that the Republican candidate welcomes millions of dollars of superPAC advertising.

If Russ wants to do something about campaign finance, he should run for the Wisconsin open Senate seat and get a bill through Congress after he’s elected.

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