Daily Kos

A race that looked like it might be somewhat sleepy just got a bit more interesting. Not because of this:

Meanwhile, GOP leaders from the seven counties in the district picked state Assemblywoman Jane Corwin as their nominee during a meeting in Geneseo on Monday night.

Corwin said she was "humbled" by their support and touted her rating as the "the 2nd most conservative member" of the state Assembly by the New York State Conservative Party.

"I know we need to slash federal spending, balance the budget, end the bailouts, take leftover money from the Obama stimulus package to pay down the deficit and support repealing Obamacare," she said in a statement.

But because of this:

The nomination of the establishment favorite, while celebrated by local Republican officials Monday night, drew an ominous warning from western New York tea party activists who immediately vowed to pursue a third-party candidate. ...

The western New York tea party organization reacted swiftly and sharply Monday night immediately after Corwin’s selection had been finalized: “How sad, the GOP leaders stuck their finger high in the air and told the TEA Party to stick it,” said an updated statement posted on the group’s website Monday night. “The[y] have endorsed Corwin, they have now set their own table and invited a third party candidate to challenge them for this Congressional seat.”

Still, the teabaggers always talk a big game, and whether they can actually put up a fight is a big question that, I think, depends on two things. The first is whether the Conservative Party endorses Corwin (they've done so in the past), or if they give their line to a teahadist. If the Cons go with Corwin, the malcontents will have to petition their way on to the ballot - not something easily done.

The second is whether a well-funded outside group like the Tea Party Express or the Club for Growth decides to get in. The glory that was the Doug Hoffman-led NY-23 cat fud extravangaza would never have been possible without the CfG; if they or the TPX declines to get involved here, it's hard to imagine Some Dude making much of an impact. There's the possibility of finding a richie rich, but one good option, Carl Paladino, has already gotten behind Corwin.

Anyhow, we'll obviously keep our eyes on this race, especially since Dems might still make a serious push here. Fingers always crossed for cat fud.

P.S. One detail from last November's elections that had escaped my notice is that the Green Party managed to get more than 50,000 votes in the gubernatorial race. This means they get an automatic ballot line for the next four years, so no more petitioning - the first time this has happened for a new party in New York in quite a while. (The Libertarians came close, with just under 49K votes.) So we could see more third-party challenges bugging Dems from the left in the near future, if the Greens don't make a habit of cross-endorsing (as the Working Families Party typically does)

UPDATE: So Republican leaders are kissing Conservative Party chair Mike Long's... ring, and he seems inclined to play ball:

“I’ve had good conversations with Republican leaders in the state and in Washington, D.C.,” said Long. “Provided they pick a conservative Republican, I will work to keep this thing unified. It’s a seat we shouldn’t lose.”

Derail a few elections and suddenly everyone's your friend! Meanwhile, Liz Benjamin points to another option:

However, the Indys could be convinced to support someone else – particularly if they get a personal ask from Rep. Steve Israel, the new DCCC chairman. The congressman is allies with state Indy Chairman Frank MacKay (they’re both Long Islanders), who would like to help Israel land his first victory in his new leadership role, if at all possible. ...

But the DCCC, which apparently has done some polling on this, doesn’t see the point of putting any money into the race unless there’s a strong third party or independent candidate who might split the GOP vote in the Republican-dominated district, providing the Democrat with a potential path to victory.

Would the Independence Party deliberately try to split the vote just to help Israel? I'm skeptical - and this information is coming just from a single anonymous source of Benjamin's. And as I say above, I don't think merely having a third-party placeholder would be enough of a difference-maker. I think that candidate would have to have real money.

UPDATE 2: Now this is the kind of third-party candidate I'm talking about. No, not David Bellavia, the Iraq war vet mentioned in this morning's digest who apparently refused to rule out such a run when he interviewed with party leaders. I'm talking about Crazy Jack Davis, the lunatic jillionaire and three-time failed candidate for this seat. There are conflicting reports. "Sources say" to Liz Benjamin that Davis could mount an independent bid, but the Daily Caller amusingly relates that Davis "said he would try for the Democratic nomination if he did not receive the Republican endorsement." A sure way to lose both nods! Third party, here he comes?

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…

Little Gay Billy's BIG Gay News-O-Rama!

• Big day in Hawaii---Governor Neil Abercrombie signs the civil unions bill today (it'll be live-streamed here at 2pm, which I believe is 7pm ET). No, it ain't marriage. But it's a foot in the door. And once it's signed, thirteen states plus D.C. will offer either marriage or civil unions to same-sex couples.
• Make that fourteen? The Maryland Senate introduced a marriage bill yesterday, and it sounds like it's got a decent shot at passing. Land sakes a'mighty…if we keep this up the sky's certainly gonna fall one 'o these days! Soon! Really! Maggie Gallagher swears it will!
• Speaking of Maggie Gallagher: her National Organization for Marriage LOST big-time here in Maine last Friday. See, in 2009 we had a referendum vote to repeal our same-sex marriage law, and the anti-marriage forces---who, sadly, won---were funded almost entirely by NOM. But NOM thought it could flip Maine election law the bird by refusing to disclose its donors. Baldercockypoo, said a federal judge last week. So now they gotta cough 'em up. Fearless prediction: the list is full of rotten bastards from out of state, many of whom call Salt Lake City home. I wonder if they'll feel a burning sensation in their souls when sunlight hits their names.
• Three cheers for Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, who issued an executive order "prohibiting state agencies from making hiring decisions based on gender identity."
• We mentioned this in C&J yesterday, but it's worth repeating. The U.S. Marines fighting in Afghanistan are getting briefed on the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. The right-wing Henny Penny crowd swore blood oaths (with secret pinky shakes and Latin chants to show they were serious) that servicemen and women would bolt for the exits if gays were allowed to serve openly. As if it was possible, those fearmongers look like even bigger idiots now:

  “I haven’t had any indication yet at all, not at all,” Gen. James Amos told reporters when asked if he expected the mass exodus of troops that Sen. John McCain and other critics predicted if the ban was lifted.  Amos was visiting troops in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province when President Barack Obama signed the repeal in late December.  He said he addressed some 12,000 Marines about the change and “everyone said, ‘Sir, we got it.  We’re going to do this thing.‘”

  When you know the soldier next to you is willing to take a bullet for you, sexual orientation doesn't really matter. It's been true since Valley frickin' Forge.

• Last but not least, Keori has an excellent diary on the symbiosis between the labor movement and the GLBT community. Memo to HRC and other gay-rights groups who have stood silently on the sidelines while Republicans try to gut unions in Wisconsin and elsewhere: Wake the hell up and make some noise!

Srsly.

Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

Jibber your jabber

Wednesday edition.

 Eugene Robinson :

Let's be clear: The high-stakes standoff in Wisconsin has nothing to do with balancing the state's budget.

It is about money, though - but only in the sense that money translates into political power. At this point, it's clear for all to see that Gov. Scott Walker's true aim is to bust the public employee unions, thus permanently reshaping the political landscape in the Republican Party's favor. ..

I thought Republicans were supposed to believe that a contract is a contract, sacred and inviolate. Guess not.

But never mind all that. The reality is that workers in many industries are having to choose between givebacks and massive layoffs. Public employees should not be uniquely sheltered from the ill winds buffeting the U.S. economy.

The Wisconsin unions have recognized this fact. Union leaders have announced that they are prepared to accept Walker's proposal on health and pension contributions. In other words, money is no longer an issue.

Walker won, right? He got what he wanted, didn't he?

Actually, no. Bringing health and pension benefits in line with reality was never the point.

Many Beltway insiders seem to have convinced themselves that abortion doesn’t matter anymore. Just look at the press clippings from CPAC, where Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels wowed his D.C. cheerleaders with a speech doubling down on his earlier call for a “truce” over culture-war issues like abortion. Chris Christie came into town a few days later, and excited a lot of the same people with a speech focused almost exclusively on the idea that entitlement-spending cuts are the nation’s top priority. Big-time conservative strategists like Michael Barone have opined that a truce over abortion policy—as reflected in a structure of legalized abortion with “reasonable” state restrictions—is already in place. And we are told incessantly that the driving force in Republican politics, the Tea Party movement, is basically libertarian in its orientation and wildly uninterested in cultural issues.

How out of touch could they be? It’s rare to see the Washington zeitgeist so disconnected from the reality of what conservative activists and their representatives are doing and saying on the ground in Iowa, in state capitals across the country, and next door in the House of Representatives. Far from being a sideshow, the Right-to-Life movement’s priorities have been front-and-center for conservatives across the country.

Science journalism needs a mix of really well-done daily deadline reporting and longer, thought-out, exhaustively reported narrative stories. The two are completely different beasts occupying different niches, and we should make every effort to protect them both, by ensuring that there’s habitat to sustain them. That’s one reason I’m so enthusiastic about The Atavist, a new publishing company that’s producing exceptional long-form journalism—longer than a standard magazine article but much shorter than a book—on an ebook model. Browsing Amazon yesterday, I noticed that Evan Ratliff’s Lifted, one of the first two offerings they published, is number four on the nonfiction bestseller list. Not the ebook list: the whole list. That’s pretty astonishing for a new format. And gives me some hope that perhaps, unlike the poor razorback sucker, narrative journalism will make it off the endangered list someday soon.

The Democratic polls carry with it the obvious caveats about partisan polling. But the question order of those two surveys appears more sound than the Rasmussen poll. Following standard questions about the respondent's voter registration and 2012 vote-likelihood, the more recent of the two surveys asks a de rigueur approve/disapprove question about Walker (41% approve, 51% disapprove). The older survey asks a standard right track (40%) wrong track (48%) question about the state before the Walker approve (44%) disapprove (50%) question.

What type of Republican candidate would do best against President Obama in 2012? Charlie Cook has some ideas. Even with the right candidate -- short of another Ronald Reagan -- the incumbent Democrat could still have an edge. Watch to find out why.

 Tom Jensen/PPP :

Obama's current position is not bad- but it's a lot more similar to where he was during the last half of 2010 than it is to his great polling month of January.

 Ezra Klein :

Mark Bittman:

One “positive” often raised about McDonald’s is that it sells calories cheap. But since many of these calories are in forms detrimental rather than beneficial to our health and to the environment, they’re actually quite expensive — the costs aren’t seen at the cash register but in the form of high health care bills and environmental degradation.

Added: David E. Hoffman has a thoughtful piece in Foreign Policy:

The New Virology
From Stuxnet to biobombs, the future of war by other means.

So, the conundrum is clear: As Danzig put it a decade ago, "With nonexplosive weapons it may be difficult to tell if an incident is an act of war, the deed of a small terrorist group, a simple crime, or a natural occurrence."

At The Nation, Katrina vanden Heuvel writes, Elizabeth Warren's battle:

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)—the people’s agency and cop on the beat to protect consumers—is now a reality. Its website is live, you can sign-up for updates, and check out a sleek Arrested Development-style video narrated by Ron Howard that explains the bureau’s mission.

“David beat Goliath, but make no mistake: Goliath is not down for the count. Families can and should be proud of their new watchdog, but they would be wrong if they take its future security and independence for granted,” said Warren. “Many of those who have opposed the CFPB are still trying to chip away at its independence by subjecting it entirely to Congressional appropriations without any dedicated funding from the Federal Reserve.”

Indeed Texas Republican Representative Randy Neugebauer has introduced legislation to house the CFPB in Treasury so that Congress can control its funding through Appropriations. That would be a disaster, potentially immobilizing the bureau.

“Politicizing the funding of bank supervision would be a dangerous precedent, and it would deprive the CFPB of the predictable funding it will need to examine large and powerful banks consistently and to provide a level playing field with their non-bank competitors,” said Warren.

This week, Warren and the CFPB will host a summit examining the impact of credit card legislation passed by Congress one year ago to cleanup the industry. Participants will include academics, industry leaders, consumer advocates, and government officials.

This kind of work is at the heart of the CFPB mission, as described by Warren: “We can do our part to help level the playing field, to cut out the tricks and traps, to make it possible to master a credit card contract or a mortgage closing without needing an army of lawyers.”

• • • • •

Marwan Bishara, senior policy analyst at Al Jazeera, writes Gaddafi's threats were no different from those of any foreign occupier.

conchita writes ACTION: Help Prevent Another Massacre.

lotlizard writes Eyes on Egypt & Region Liveblog #122 - Libya

• • • • •

At Daily Kos on this date in 2008:

Another day, another story of GOP corruption. In this case, the offender is embattled Arizona Republican Rick Renzi, now indicted:

Republican Rep. Rick Renzi has been indicted for extortion, wire fraud, money laundering and other charges related to a land deal in Arizona.

A 26-page federal indictment unsealed in Arizona accuses Renzi and two former business partners of conspiring to promote the sale of land that buyers could swap for property owned by the federal government. The sale netted one of Renzi's former partners $4.5 million.

Extortion, fraud, money laundering. That's quite a list, Congressman. Sure you didn't miss one?

No John Thune in 2012:

For months now, my wife Kimberley and I have received encouragement from family, friends, colleagues, and supporters from across South Dakota and the country to run for the presidency of the United States...[but] at this time, I feel that I am best positioned to fight for America’s future here in the trenches of the United States Senate.

Translation: Thune didn't think he would win. He's spent his entire career in politics, either as an aide, an appointed official, state party chairman, or candidate for office. He ran for Congress at age 35 and has probably imagined himself as President since he was a toddler. In short: I can guarantee you that if John Thune thought he would win this campaign, he would have run.

The only question is whether Thune thinks the problem would have been winning the nomination or beating President Obama. Given how how much insider enthusiasm there was for him to run, I'm betting on the latter. Each of the top three candidates -- Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Mike Huckabee -- have serious flaws. Romney's is that he's an unprincipled hack, Palin's is that she's Palin, and Huckabee's is that he doesn't seem to be running.

Thune could have run circles around Tim Pawlenty, and he had an army of operatives just dying for him to make the bid. In fact, as of September, he'd all but announced he would be running:

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the "Daschle slayer" who beat the Senate Democratic leader in 2004, is ramping up plans for a presidential run in 2012, associates say.

Thune, 49, spoke candidly about his plans for a cover story in The Weekly Standard — priceless exposure for an ambitious conservative. Senior Editor Stephen F. Hayes writes that Thune "is likely to run for president in 2012."

"Thune allows that he's thinking about it seriously enough that he's gamed out his 'pathway to get there,' calculated the amount of money it would take to be competitive in early primaries, and even thought about the timing of an announcement," Hayes writes in "Dakota Dreaming: The Presidential Ambitions of John Thune."

Since that time, it's not like the GOP field has gotten any stronger. Romney hasn't gone anywhere except down, Huckabee is showing less interest than Mario Cuomo, and every time Sarah Palin opens her mouth, she turns off yet another swath of America. So if Thune wanted the nomination, it's there for the taking.

But while the GOP field has gotten weaker, President Obama has gotten stronger. In December and January he proved his political mettle, and despite the midterm results he's bounce backed in a big way. I'm not saying President Obama is a lock for reelection. If Republican spending cuts lead to a double dip recession, he might pay the political price. But at least based on his decision today, it seems clear John Thune wasn't willing to take a bet on that happening.

As Milwaukee County Executive in 2009, Walker tried to get rid of the unionized  security guards at the county courthouse and replace them with contractors, which he promised would save the county money. The County Board rejected the idea, but in March of 2010 Walker “unilaterally ordered it,” claiming there was a budget emergency....Unfortunately for Walker and Milwaukee taxpayers, an arbiter later ruled that Walker had overstepped his authority, and ordered the county to reinstate the unionized workers, pay backwages, and pay tens of thousands of dollars in arbiter fees.

So even if we set aside the human cost of stripping teachers and maintenance workers and snowplow drivers of their bargaining rights, and even if we set aside the firesale of Wisconsin assets, this is what Wisconsin would have to look forward to a large-scale repeat of if Scott Walker gets his way:

So, the last time Scott Walker did something like this, in his desperation to get rid of employees who joined unions, he improperly fired them, he overestimated how much money that would save, and then he allowed for a private, foreign-based, butt vodka company to put a convicted criminal in charge of security at the Milwaukee courthouse and city hall.

President Obama signs the Affordable Care Act

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler has become the third federal judge to rule that the Affordable Care Act is constitutional, and that Congress was within its constitutional authority to regulate health insurance under the Commerce Caluse.

"It is pure semantics to argue that an individual who makes a choice to forgo health insurance is not 'acting,' especially given the serious economic and health-related consequences to every individual of that choice," Kessler writes. "Making a choice is an affirmative action, whether one decides to do something or not do something. They are two sides of the same coin. To pretend otherwise is to ignore reality."

Kessler, however, rejected the argument that Congress had the authority to enact the Affordable Care Act under the General Welfare Clause because Congress "did not intend [the law] to operate as a tax."

This is a profoundly reality-based ruling, coming from the Clinton appointed judge. This case was brought by the American Center for Law and Justice, a Christian legal group founded by evangelist Pat Robertson, which argued that the law violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. Kessler also rejected that argument, saying that "anyone who objects to having health care for religious reasons can choose to pay the penalty instead — as the lawsuit said all five plaintiffs plan to do."

The rulling is available here. Department of Justice spokesperson Tracy Schmaler provides this statement:

“We welcome this ruling, which marks the third time a court has reviewed the Affordable Care Act on the merits and upheld it as constitutional. This court found -- as two others have previously -- that the minimum coverage provision of the statute was a reasonable measure for Congress to take in reforming our health care system. At the same time, trial courts in additional cases have dismissed numerous challenges to this law on jurisdictional and other grounds. The Department will continue to vigorously defend this law in ongoing litigation.”

Jibber your jabber

Last week it was Glenn Beck attacking Google for having fomented the Egyptian revolution. Bragging that he'd "exposed" a previously unknown Google executive "as an instigator of a revolution," Beck wondered if Google was just a "shill" for America and warned his audience against conducting searches through Google.

Even by Glenn Beck's standards, it was a pretty weird conspiracy theory, but now it looks like his ideas may have found a home...in the government of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Reuters reports:

Russia blames Google for stirring Egypt unrest: report

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's deputy blamed Google Inc in an interview published on Tuesday for stirring up trouble in the revolution that ousted Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak.

"Look what they have done in Egypt, those highly-placed managers of Google, what manipulations of the energy of the people took place there," Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin told the Wall Street Journal.

Such strong comment from one of Putin's most trusted deputies is a clear signal of growing concern among Russian hardliners about the role of the Internet in the unrest which has swept across the Arab world.

So Vladimir Putin, Hosni Mubarak, and Glenn Beck can all agree on at least one thing: Google is evil. But doesn't that tell us more about them than it does Google?

The battle for Wisconsin is hitting the airwaves. Greg Sargent reports that a group partly funded by the billionaire Koch brothers is about to run some ads:

Here's something else that will ratchet up the stakes in the Wisconsin standoff and fuel suspicions about the real goal behind the push to roll back public employee rights: The well-funded conservative group Americans for Prosperity is set to start running ads in Wisconsin, I'm told.

"We're planning to run TV and radio ads in Wisconsin starting tomorrow, as well as host a few events across the state later this week," Americans for Prosperity spokesperson Mary Ellen Burke emails. "Things are happening quickly as the news story in Wisconsin progresses."(…)

Americans for Prosperity, of course, was partly created and bankrolled by the secretive billionaire Koch brothers, who are also major financial backers of Governor Scott Walker.

The arch-right-wing Club for Growth is already running ads in the state, according to an email on Saturday from the Wisconsin Senate Democrats.

Our side is not silent, however. The Wisconsin AFL-CIO, in conjunction with AFSCME, SEIU, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, has made a significant buy in Wisconsin promoting this:

At Daily Kos, we're going to get the protesters' backs and start running some ads of our own. We are going to run $2,000 of Facebook ads across the entire state of Wisconsin urging people to watch the awesome video of the protests set to the music of Arcade Fire. The goal will be to have as many Wisconsinites as possible see the real faces of the protests, not the distorted images that Fox News will show.

Contribute to Daily Kos on Orange to Blue to help us run these ads. We are going to run two ads a day, putting $500 behind each ad. The second day, we'll keep the ad that performs the best, and cycle in a new one.  The ads we're opening with are on the left. If we raise more than $2,000, we can keep going for more than two days.

In addition to contributing,  you can help out by posting the video onto your Facebook wall, and by liking the video when you see a friend post it on his or her wall. The embed code can be found on either YouTube or Vimeo. By combining the buzz that is already around the video with both volunteer action and paid ads, we can create a real multiplier effect to help the people of Wisconsin see the true face of the protests.

Once again, here is the video we are promoting:

Please, contribute $10 to Daily Kos to help us run these ads.

Stephen Colbert laments Rick Santorum's web search problem: