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Monday, May 10, 2010


About the Author

Bryan is an artist, father, husband, and son (not really in that order). He works as the director of youth ministries at a United Methodist church and writes and administers The Fireside Post with his father, Ohg Rea Tone. His writings have not been published, though they have been printed a lot.

May 7th, 2010 • RelatedFiled Under
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A long, long time ago…
I can still remember
How that music used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And, maybe, they’d be happy for a while.
I don’t have cable.  My family does not value the television enough to pay that kind of money for regular programming.  There are times, though, when that is a real inconvenience, like when something happens and you want to watch the news.  I lived in Nashville, Tennessee, for three years with my family, and I have never loved a city like Nashville.
I have been to Europe twice, and I have driven the United State sleeping in my Volkswagen.  I lived in New Orleans for a spell, and I have been back there many times.  I was sad to see that beautiful, gritty, aromatic city get washed away in Hurricane Katrina, and I knew that there were cultural consequences that we do not fully understand.
Nashville, though, was different.  Maybe it was the people who embraced us like family.  Maybe it was the way that it feels both like a small southern town and a big Middle-Amercian city.  Maybe it was the way that they loved coffee and liquor and food, and there was never a shortage of any of it.  Maybe it was the way that people breathed Christian teachings and spiritual lifestyles, while the churches on every street corner become shrines to a tradition once treasured.  Maybe it has to do with the music;  the way that music is like the breeze that keeps the heat of the southern summers from being uncomfortable and wraps you up in a cozy warmth during the chilly winter months.  Music City is not about country music, it is about the song and the songwriter, and the tourists come to see the product of this labor of love.
When I heard that Nashville was flooding, I was gripped with anxiety.  I was hungry for information, for any indication that the breeze was still blowing, that the heart of the city was still beating.  But I don’t have cable.  My TV is only hooked up to my DVD player, as a matter of fact, so I don’t watch the news.  I have been getting most of my information from online sources, from NPR in the car, and from Facebook updates from my friends in the city.   It is clear, even in those glimpses of life in Nashville, that they are focusing on clean up and rebuilding, and they are assessing the damage.
It was this morning that I found the article in the Nashville Scene about Soundcheck.  Soundcheck is a storage facility for musical instruments in East Nashville.  Here is a quote from the Scene:
As you all well know, Nashville is rife with home studios and basement rehearsal spaces. Couple that with the professional spaces affected, and inevitably the cumulative value of the losses is incalculable, and sentimental losses are even greater.
To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, take a look at the pictures posted on Soundcheck Nashville’s Official Flood Blog. Located in East Nashville — right on the banks of Cumberland — Soundcheck is a sprawling complex housing many rehearsal spaces and TONS of storage facilities for a host of musicians, ranging from session men to outright superstars.
Flood clean up is nasty.  Nothing survives.  I lived through the flood of 2008 in Iowa, and I can tell you that this is no small task.  As the locals and the stream of volunteers work through the process of cleaning up the debris and damage left behind from the Cumberland River, the stillness in the air will be undeniable.  The breeze has died down, and it has been replaced with the stench of river water and the heaviness of the road ahead.  There are instruments lost, venues destroyed, and musicians trying to pick up the pieces.
The soul of Music City is troubled, and until it finds the voice that it had before the waters came, Nashville will not be in full recovery mode.  They will only be cleaning up the physical damage.  Like New Orleans, until the heart of Nashville beats again with the vitality of the city’s culture and musical heritage, there will be little room for healing.
And in the streets: the children screamed,
The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed.
But not a word was spoken;
The church bells all were broken.
And the three men I admire most:
The father, son, and the holy ghost,
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died.
Already, there are Flood benefit concerts and musicians all over raising money to help out.  There is a stir in the air.  Nashville has hope, and that is something that rings true in that city more than the music.
If you can, please take time to visit takepart.com and see if there is any opportunity that you can participate in to add to the hope in Nashville, or you can go straight to the source and contact www.hon.org for Hands On Nashville.

The Gulf Oil Spill is the Dust Bowl of the Gulf States

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Another catastrophe of man made destruction has struck the Gulf of Mexico – threatening the coastal region with chaos.  Chaos to both nature and human economics.  One goofy GOP Congressman stated that nature would absorb the oil – not to worry.  The Dust Bowl of the 1930’s ravaged the Midwest but nature eventually reclaimed the land and today farmers and ranchers prosper.  The Congressman is correct – witness Mount St. Helens, the volcano erupted in 1980 and today nature has reclaimed the area destroyed by the blast of Mother Earth’s hot reproach.  But hey Congressman, there is a catch.
American Profile, a weekly newspaper magazine insert, has a cover story of the Rebirth of Mount St. Helens – 30 years later.  After the volcanic eruption the words used to describe the landscape were, ‘dusty, lunar, destruction, chaos,’ and even ‘the end.’  “But now it’s transition, recovery, natural cycles.”  The quote offering the most relevant commentary on nature is:
While the volcano remains strikingly barren, Mount St. Helens has undergone a remarkable transformation in the last three decades – primarily because humans have let nature take its course.  Scientists say the mountain is a testament to how plants and animals return, even after a catastrophic disturbance.
Mother Nature is patient – unlike the Gulf Coast humans who somehow feel they need to make a living for the next thirty years.  The Congressman was correct – nature will disburse the gushing oil and the Gulf Coast will return to the sanctity of home for thousands of earth’s sea, land, and air creatures.  The shrimp will return, fish will return, birds will migrate and mate, sea turtles will survive another 500 million years.  So what is the problem?
When the dust bowl struck the great plains  in the 1930’s people packed their bags and immigrated to California.  When Gold was found in California in 1849 people again packed there bags and moved west.  The problem is that we humans have already populated the globe.  Today we can pack our bags but there is no where to go.  We can’t even go to Mexico – someone put up a big fence.
Catastrophe happens – to paraphrase a popular GOP bumper sticker.  OK, so we have too much co2 in the atmosphere – not to worry – nature has a way of fixing itself.  The Exon Valdez spilled some oil – look at the area now – it got fixed didn’t it?  Icecaps are melting, glaciers are spilling into the oceans, sea levels are rising – no problem – nature will adjust and reclaim God’s majesty.
The Tea Party claims they are angry at ‘intrusive government.’  Well let me be perfectly clear – I am mad as hell about the lack of restraint shown by the Tea Party, Freedom Works, and the whole class of ridiculously ignorant buffoons who call themselves Conservative.
Conservative once meant ‘to conserve.’  Is that a concept beyond the grasp of the modern GOP?  We can actually reduce our environment to a state of unlivable conditions.  All humans can die – and eventually nature will reclaim the planet.  The majesty of life will prevail.  I can run up my credit card debt to the point of bankruptcy – shoot myself in despair – and somehow the banking industry will survive – does that mean I should follow such an unrestrained  and irresponsible life course?  Does that sound nuts or something?  Yes – it is nuts.  But it is a perfect analogy to the thinking patterns of FOX News, the Tea Party, and the entire class of Republicans in our State Houses and in the Federal Congress.
People unwittingly caused the Dust Bowl.  The farmers of that era plowed the earth to about twelve inches deep.  When one year the rain did not come, the loose dry soil grew hot under the scorching sun, temperatures shot up, the hot air rose creating extraordinary wind – and the dust began to blow.   Today conservative farmers understand how to manage their land to prevent another catastrophic climate change.  But somehow these same farmers, people who are personally aware of catastrophic consequences of poor environment management, support the lunacy of the climate change deniers of the GOP.
The British Petroleum Gulf Oil Spill has the potential of be equivalent to the 1930’s Dust Bowl in terms of devastation to the people of a particular geographic area of our country.  But there is no where for the shrimp fishermen to go – they cannot run.  The fishing industry, the tourism industry, the entire economy of the Gulf Coast States may collapse under the weight of poor environment management.
We have seen this before.  We know that nature will eventually create balance.  The question is this, how many times do the pseudo-conservatives of the early 21st Century have to screw up before they will learn to pay attention to history?

The WonkLine: May 10, 2010

Welcome to The WonkLine, a daily 10 a.m. roundup of the latest news about health care, the economy, national security, immigration and climate policy. This is what we’re reading. Tell us what you found in the comments section below. You can also follow The Wonk Room on Twitter.

AP100509042907


Climate Change

The national parks and fish & wildlife directors are heading to the Gulf Coast to “help with recovery efforts as the oil plume bears down on several wildlife preserves,” covering more birds,threatening wetlands, and leaving tar balls on an Alabama island.
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) will unveil their climate bill on Wednesday, but without Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who wants a “pause” because of the “catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico which creates new policy and political challenges not envisioned in our original discussions.”
Amy Grant, Keith Urban, Alison Krauss and others “appeared on a Nashville-based telethon to raise money for those wholost nearly everything in the Tennessee floods of last week.”

Economy

The European Union has agreed to offer “as much as 750 billion euros ($962 billion), including International Monetary Fund backing, to countries facing instability and the European Central Bank said it will buy government and private debt.”
The New York Times’ Paul Lin awards “comeback of the year” to corporate profits: “Of the companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index that have announced first-quarter results, 77 percent have beaten Wall Street earnings forecasts.”
Defense Secretary Gates said over the weekend that “the Pentagon must hold down its spending and make choices that will anger ‘powerful people’ in an era of economic strain.”

National Security

“Officials in Iraq say the death toll from a wave of shootings and bomb attacks across the country Monday has risen to at least 67.”
“The Obama administration announced Sunday that indirect, American-brokered talks had resumed between Israel and the Palestinians, capping a year of efforts by Washington to revive the peace process. The American special envoy to the region, George J. Mitchell, is expected to shuttle between the two sides over the next four months as mediator of the so-called proximity talks.”
“Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is scheduled to visit Syria on Sunday. Russia has hinted it wants to boost economic ties with the country as well as help restart peace talks with Israel.”

Health Care

In his weekly radio address, President Obama argued that the “healthcare lawalready is helping millions of peoplethrough tax breaks for small businesses and assistance for families with young adults.” He also said that on Monday the White House will announce a new rule that allows young adults without insurance to stay on their parents’ plan until they’re 26 years old.
Implementation update: “The White House unveiled details last week of a $5 billion program to provide financial relief to companies that offer health coverage to early retirees.”
“A war of words between President Obama and health insurers escalated Sunday as industry giant WellPoint Inc. found itself under renewed attack for raising rates and canceling insurance policies of sick patients.”

Kagan faces criticism from left and right online

President Obama's nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens was met with criticism from the left and the right Monday as liberals continued to raise questions about her views on executive power and conservative bloggers honed in on her lack of experience as a judge.
FROM THE LEFT
Salon blogger Glenn Greenwald has been Kagan's most outspoken liberal opponent. Nearly a month ago, Greenwald laid out "The case against Elana Kagan," and he has been hammering her ever since, largely over her views on executive power.
On Monday, Greenwald argued that Obama's pick was entirely predictable.
Nothing is a better fit for this White House than a blank slate, institution-loyal, seemingly principle-free careerist who spent the last 15 months as the Obama administration's lawyer vigorously defending every one of his assertions of extremely broad executive authority.

Meanwhile, at The American Prospect, Adam Serwer suggested that a 2005 letter co-signed by Kagan to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) criticizing an amendment to restrict the ability of courts to review practices at Guantanamo Bay may signal more progressive views on executive authority. From an NPR report about the letter:
"To put this most pointedly," the letter said, "were the Graham amendment to become law, a person suspected of being a member of al-Qaeda could be arrested, transferred to Guantanamo, detained indefinitely ... subjected to inhumane treatment, tried before a military commission and sentenced to death without any express authorization from Congress and without review by any independent federal court. The American form of government was established precisely to prevent this kind of unreviewable exercise of power over the lives of individuals."
Serwer concludes:
Kagan's record is mostly blank. This letter is not a record. To borrow Goldstein's metaphor, this is a thin reed to hang an assessment of how a Justice Kagan might rule on such issues in the future. The fact that Kagan avoided commenting on many of the most controversial issues of her day makes her a gamble, although I suppose it means something that -- given her relative silence -- she chose to comment on this one. At the same time, one assumes that if these kinds of issues really did matter, she would have spoken up far more than she did.
You also gotta wonder ... given that much of the liberal criticism of Kagan has centered around this issue, why wasn't the White House passing this letter around?
FROM THE RIGHT
National Review's Ed Whelan -- who found himself under attack over the weekend after using an insulting George Bernard Shaw quip calling a woman a prostitute in reference to Kagan's legal views -- argued that Kagan fails to meet her own standards for the high court:
Kagan may well have less experience relevant to the work of being a justice than any justice in the last five decades or more. In addition to zero judicial experience, she has only a few years of real-world legal experience. Further, notwithstanding all her years in academia, she has only a scant record of legal scholarship. Kagan flunks her own "threshold" test of the minimal qualifications needed for a Supreme Court nominee.
Noting Greenwald's criticisms,The Atlantic's Stuart Taylor Jr. writes that if confirmed, Kagan will likely push the court to the right, particularly on national security issues:
But Kagan's record suggests that she probably falls to the right of Stevens -- arguably the most liberal current justice -- at least on the presidential-power and war-on-terror issues that may be more important than any others that come before the justices in our times.
This helps explain why the enthusiasm for Kagan among moderate liberals is not shared by some of their more leftist allies. ...
as Solicitor General, she has forcefully championed Obama's continuation of Bush's long-term detention without trial of Guantanamo prisoners; of Bush's detention of prisoners in Afghanistan with no judicial review at all; and of Bush's use of the "state secrets" doctrine to fend off lawsuits over Bush's warrantless wiretapping program. Kagan has also apparently helped shape Obama's plan to use congressionally revamped military commissions to try some terrorism suspects and other broad claims of presidential power.
Of course, it is Kagan's job as Solicitor General to defend Obama's policies even if she disagrees with them. But she has given no hint that she disagrees.
Hot Air's Ed Morrissey wondered if the Sunday night leak of Kagan's nomination suggests something about Obama's confidence in his nominee:
The late-Sunday leak gets the White House almost nothing it could have had with an early-Monday leak, and it missed the opportunity of pre-empting the Sunday talk shows' focus on the Times Square bomber and the Gulf oil spill, two narratives that don't play well for the administration. Instead, the news broke when most people weren't paying attention at all -- not quite as bad as a Friday afternoon document dump, since it would just make it in time for the Monday morning newspapers, but pretty close to the famous bad-news strategy every administration employs.
AND ALSO
So is anyone happy about Kagan's nomination? The New Yorker's Jeffrey Toobin, who attended Harvard Law with Kagan, said the traits she shares with the president could serve her well:
As it happens, this weekend I was finishing "The Bridge," the new biography of Obama by David Remnick, our boss here at the magazine. Since Kagan's nomination was imminent, I was struck by certain similarities between the President and his nominee. They are both intelligent, of course, but they also share an ability to navigate among factions without offending anyone. Remnick's Obama is very... careful. He takes no outlandish stands or unnecessary risks. He is an exquisite curator of his own career. All of this is true of Kagan as well.
But on the Court, Kagan will have to do something she's not done before. Show her hand. Develop a clear ideology. Make tough votes. I have little doubt she's up to the job, but am less clear on how she'll do it.
Libertarian Radley Balko suggested that Kagan will come down on the side of government on a range of issues:
She's a cerebral academic who fits Washington's definition of a centrist: She's likely defer to government on both civil liberties and regulatory and commerce issues. And though libertarians allegedly share ground with Republicans on fiscal and regulatory issues and with Democrats on civil liberties issues, neither party cares enough about those particular issues to put up a fight for them. Which is why Kagan sailed through her first confirmation hearings, and is widely predicted to sail through the hearings for her nomination to the Supreme Court.
By Matt DeLong  |  May 10, 2010; 1:04 PM ET
Categories:  44 The Obama Presidency


Are The Tea Party Inspired Campaigns To Nullify Health Reform Running Out Of Steam?

Politico’s Sarah Kliff points out that conservative efforts to repeal health care reform through lawsuit or state referendum — you can see who’s doing what here — are running into roadblocks, as voters are quickly turning against the idea. “By a slight majority, likely voters tend to oppose the health care reform law. But they also tend to oppose the repeal lawsuits as a ‘bad idea’ that would, for a sizeable portion of voters, make them ‘less likely’ to support a given candidate. In short, voters simultaneously don’t want to health care reform but don’t want to challenge it either,” Kliff notes:
The findings are particularly pertinent in Florida, where the Republican candidate for governor, state attorney general Bill McCollum, has been a leader in repeal movement. McCollum lead a coalition of 12 states in filing health care reform repeal lawsuits the day after the bill passed in the House.
The Quinnipiac poll found that the majority of Florida voters (54 percent) say it’s a “bad idea” for McCollum to file a lawsuit challenging health care reform; 38 percent say it makes them less likely to support his gubernatorial bid. Among independents the lawsuit is particularly disliked: 41 percent oppose the lawsuit challenge, while 27 percent support it.
Florida voters generally disapprove of health care reform, by about 48 to 44 percent but trying to stop it in court “is probably not going to help McCollum at this point,” says Brown.
Indeed earlier this week, Bryant Furlow reported that residents in New Mexico are actually discouraging their attorney general from joining the constitutional lawsuit challenging reform. “So far there are more than 750 comments,” AG Spokesman Phil Sisneros said. “Early on, most were clearly for joining the other states’ lawsuit but in the last few days many are urging the AG not to join.” Meanwhile, the efforts of states to pass legislation nullification the law may also be waning. As the Progressive States Network details, of the 40 something states that have introduced nullification legislation, 22 have failed to pass their bills and only 3 have succeeded. Look:

So not surprisingly, taking stuff away from people isn’t very popular. But the failure of these frivolous measures doesn’t mean that Republicans won’t keep on trying or that the public will embrace health care reform. The success of the law will likely depend on the effectiveness of implementation and the very fact that states are resisting the reform and using its unpopularity as a campaign wedge issue, suggests that the road to 2014 and beyond will be a bumpy one.
Americans are still not convinced that the health care law will lower costs — Gallup just found that individuals are no less concerned about paying the costs of a serious illness or accident, or normal healthcare costs, than they were last year — and state and federal regulators will have to work very hard to prove them wrong.



Right Wing Obstruction of Health Care in the States? #ALECFAIL



42: The number of states claimed by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to have "defended health care choice" through the actual or proposed introduction of health care nullification bills intended to "oppose Obamacare."
3: The number of states where health care nullification bills have actually been enacted.
22 (and counting)The number of states where health care nullification bills or constitutional amendments have failed:
Health Care Nullification Map

(The states highlighted in blue have enacted health care nullification bills. Measures in Arizona and Florida require approval by voters in November, with 60% of the vote required for passage in Florida. Updated 5/6/10.)
In recent months, the health insurance industry-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has claimed that over 40 individual state legislatures have "defend[ed] health care choice" by being witness to the proposed or actual introduction of their model legislation intending to attempt to nullify the recently passed federal reforms in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Despite their model legislation's patent unconstitutionality, ALEC has persisted in pushing nullification bills in state capitals across the nation, promising those who want to obstruct reform that they will "protect citizens from ObamaCare" and "stop ObamaCare at the state line."
In fact, nullification bills have already been rejected or failed to pass in at least 22 states where ALEC claimed legislators would defy federal law. ALEC style bills or proposed constitutional amendments have failed in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, andWyoming.
In other states where ALEC has claimed success, such as Montana, Rhode Island, and Texas, health care nullification bills have yet to even be introduced.
Additionally, nullification proposals have met significant opposition in many other states where they have been introduced:
  • In Iowa, the 2010 session ended with the House minority leader conceding the failure of conservative efforts to nullify federal health care reform.
  • In Arkansas, the 2010 session ended without action on a non-binding bill intended to "prevent involuntary enrollments in health care insurance programs."
  • In Delaware, legislative leaders directed a nullification effort to a committee described in a recent news report as a "favored burial ground for bills."
  • In North Dakota, a proposed constitutional amendment failed in 2009.
  • In Maryland and Michigan, attempts at nullification through constitutional amendments failed in committee.
  • And in Maine, where a nullification bill has not been introduced, legislative leadersdefeated a resolution promoted by conservatives calling on the Attorney General to join a lawsuit seeking to block the implementation of federal reform.

States Moving Forward on Implementation, Not Nullification

At the same time the right wing is focused on grandstanding and political gamesmanship, legislators and officials in all 50 states are moving forward with the hard work of planning the effective implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at the state level. Many of these efforts began well before the passing and signing of federal reform, and will accelerate in the coming weeks and months as responsible leaders in the states focus on delivering quality, affordable healthcare to their constituents. (For more on implementation, see State Implementation of Federal Reform: Resources.)
Here are just a few of the efforts publicly announced, although others are moving forward in states across the country (updated 5/6/10):
States Moving Forward on Implementation
  • In CaliforniaAssembly bill 1595 and Senate bill 890 establish the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would implement federal health care reform.
  • In IllinoisSB 3047 creates a bipartisan Health Care Justice Implementation Task Force whose primary goal is to monitor the implementation of the federal health care reforms and make recommendations for state implementation.
  • An Iowa bill, Senate File 2356, received Senate approval by a bipartisan vote. This health care reform bill sets the groundwork for how potential federal health care funding may be used to benefit Iowans. It includes an insurance exchange and it also expands the state's unofficial public option program for adults below 200% FPL.
  • Joint Select Committee to study Maine's role in the implementation of federal health care reform has passed both the House and Senate and does not require the Governors’ signature.
  • In NebraskaLR 372 would set up a committee to study the potential effect of national health care reform proposals on Nebraska and analyze policy options for responding to and implementing health care reform measures.
  • The Texas House established a House Select Committee on Federal Legislation, with a specific emphasis on implementing health care reform efforts.
  • Two 2010 bills in MinnesotaHF3709 and SF3296, make conforming and other changes related to federal health care reform; provide funding for health care subsidies; establish accountable care organizations and a publicly administered health plan, expand eligibility for medical assistance, and establish the Minnesota Health Insurance Exchange.
  • In Maryland, Gov. O'Malley appointed a commission to make recommendations about the implementation of federal health care reform, which he predicted would save his state $1 billion.
  • In Rhode Island, S2552, the Rhode Island Health Reform Act of 2010, would provide for a state-sponsored system of universal health care, including the establishment of a quasi-public non-profit organization through which all public and private purchases of insurance or health care services will be transacted for all Rhode Island employers and individuals.
  • In Wisconsin, Gov. Doyle created an Office of Health Care Reform to prepare for the sweeping changes from health care reform that effect in 2014, from creating a state-based insurance exchange to communicating to the public to explain the changes to the state's health care system.
  • Gov. Gregoire in Washington signed an executive order declaring the formation of a Health Care Cabinet directed to guide implementation of reform. The group will consist of the state Health Care Authority administrator, the state Health Department secretary, the Department of Social and Health Services secretary, as well as the governor's executive policy director and state budget director.
  • New Mexico is preparing to implement federal reforms (including its own innovative high risk insurance pool and a state insurance exchange) through the passage of SJM 1, which establishes a Health Care Reform Working Group.
  • In Vermont, the Senate passed S88 by a landslide bipartisan vote of 28-2, a bill which would enhance federal reforms by establishing the goal of universal access to health care through the design of multiple possible plans, at least one of which must include a public option.
  • In Colorado, Gov. Ritter signed an executive order to create a board of advisers on health care policy that will oversee the implementation of federal reforms, including setting up a state insurance exchange.
  • In New Jersey, the Health Insurance Exchange ActSB 1288, establishes the New Jersey Health Insurance Exchange as an independent public entity, in but not of the Department of Banking and Insurance, with certain authority to facilitate the availability and choice of health benefits plans offered to employees of small employers that employ between two and 50 employees, and other eligible persons not employed by small employers.
  • In Oregon, the state legislature laid the groundwork to implement federal reform in 2009 with the passage of HB 2009, which created the Oregon Health Authority, a state agency which is overseeing the interaction between state and federal health reform.
  • In Connecticut, the state legislature in 2009 passed SustiNet, which created a board of directors now charged with making recommendations on the implementation of federal reform.
  • In Michigan, Gov. Granholm signed Executive Order No. 2010-4 which created a council to oversee and develop recommendations for the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
  • The state legislature in Montana prepared for the implementation of federal health care reform in 2009 with the passage ofSJR 35, a resolution that created a legislative committee which is now studying opportunities and requirements for state action under federal reform.
  • In LouisianaHB303 would "provides for compliance with federal law" for expanded coverage by the Louisiana Health Plan.
  • In MississippiSB 2554 created the Mississippi Health Insurance Exchange Study Committee to make recommendations on the implementation of federal reform. It was signed into law by Gov. Barbour on April 14, 2010.
The insurance industry-backed ALEC and their allies on the right aregrossly exaggerating their success at obstruction at the state level. In fact, legislators of good faith and good conscience across the country are focused on making sure costs are kept down and coverage is expanded for their constituents by rejecting nullification and focusing instead on implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Wall Street's Flash Crash: Human Error?
Authorities believe trader's error possibly triggered the price drop.
02:49 | 05/07/2010




Fingers Pointing: Jittery markets make for volatile politics


A fat finger can do a whole lot of damage. And not just to 401(k)s.
It may not register on the scale of this week’s disasters, but the stock market’s jumpiness is just a small glimpse of where we are with the economy. New job numbers aren’t going to change any of those facts, at least not yet.
All eyes will be on the Dow, a day after, as we learn again that the economy is about as stable as an oil spill off the Gulf.
That makes the politics surrounding it even less stable. The populist mantle is still up for grabs -- witness the financial reform bill that’s made for strange bedfellows, amendment by amendment -- and forces outside Washington’s immediate control are still set to dictate some fate.
Something triggered something big on Wall Street. It won’t take much to trigger something else sometime soon.
Picking up the pieces, after a bizarre day on the markets: “At least part of the sell-off appeared to be linked to trader error, perhaps an incorrect order routed through one of the nation’s exchanges,” The New York Times’ Graham Bowley writes. “But the speed and scale of the plunge -- the largest intraday decline on record -- seemed to feed fears that the financial troubles gripping Europe were at last reaching across the Atlantic. Amid the rout, new signs of stress emerged in the credit markets.”
When you move that finger away: “Some of the dramatic fall and rise of the Dow today could have been aggravated by technical glitches and weird trading patterns. But officials and market watchers say that the threat from Europe could significantly crimp what has been a fairly good recovery. Some economists say it is akin to the Asian financial crises that gripped the markets more than a decade ago,” The Washington Post’s David Cho reports. “The question is whether we -- now out of the fire of Wall Street's financial crisis of our country's own making -- are confronting a new peril out of Europe.”
Ezra Klein, at his Washington Post blog: “What you're seeing here is a very, very fragile market. There's so much unknown risk out there -- notably, but not solely, in Europe -- that quick movements are sending everyone running for the door. That is to say, we're seeing the return of financial-crisis psychology, where people fear because they don't know.”
The Wall Street Journal’s Brett Arends: “Athens burns. Europe panics. Something funny happens in the market. The Dow plunges nearly 1,000 points in a few minutes. Is this 2008 all over again? Should you panic? Bail while you still can?”
ABC’s Jake Tapper, on the White House reaction: “They see what happened on Wall Street yesterday as part of what they call a backdrop of fear created by this Greek debt crisis,” Tapper said on “Good Morning America” Thursday. “He may be calling some European leaders later today.”
A great backdrop for some Friday jobs numbers.... President Obama will speak on the economy at 11 am ET, from the Rose Garden.
“The forecast is considerably brighter than at any time in the last two years,” ABC’s Karen Travers and Matthew Jaffe report. “For the first time since the recession began in 2009, the nation is expected to see job growth for two straight months. The consensus prediction is that employers will have added around 190,000 jobs to their payrolls last month. Just that prediction alone is welcome news for a country that lost 8.2 million jobs since January 2008. But it is also welcome news for the White House and Democrats in Congress hoping to hang onto their own jobs with elections coming up this fall.”
On the Hill -- the slow, slow walk: “The U.S. Senate yesterday rejected two significant changes to its financial-overhaul bill, voting down restrictions on a proposed consumer-protection bureau and a plan that would have forced the largest banks to shrink in size,” Bloomberg’s Alison Vekshin reports. “Senators also rejected Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown’s proposal to restrict the size of banks, a move that would’ve required the nation’s six largest banks, including Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp., to shrink. It was rejected in a 61-33 vote.”
“With senators ready to offer 100 or more amendments, time will become the point of conflict. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., says he wants to wrap the bill up by the end of next week. Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky wants to take his time,” the AP’s Jim Kuhnhenn reports. “But the movement so far suggests the bill is clearing a path for itself toward passage.”
Fed audits (lite), coming soon: “Sen. Bernie Sanders' proposal to audit the Federal Reserve is rolling toward passage this evening as support in Washington grows,” ABC’s Z. Byron Wolf and Matthew Jaffe report. “The amendment, long sought by independent Sen. Sanders and House libertarian Republican Ron Paul, was tweaked today to narrow its scope, a move that helped it gain the backing of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Banking Committee boss Chris Dodd, and the White House. It will be attached to the Wall Street reform bill.”
“The compromise, endorsed by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.) and the Treasury, would require the Fed to disclose more details about its lending during the financial crisis. It would also require a one-time audit of those loans and a one-time review of Fed governance,” The Wall Street Journal’s Sudeep Reddy and Michael R. Crittenden report.
Looking for the populist hot hand: “Here's an alternate narrative: Democrats did spend the past year threatening to unleash hell and all its furies on the financial sector, and in response a petrified Wall Street rushed to buy protection with millions of dollars in Democratic campaign tithes,” Kimberley A. Strassel writes in her “Potomac Watch” column. “The party in power then produced legislation that -- while bad in many, many ways -- is something the biggest players can live with.”  
Fiscal discipline: “President Obama, in his latest effort to signal fiscal responsibility against the rising debt, plans this month to ask Congress to give him and future presidents greater power to try to delete individual items from spending bills,” Jackie Calmes writes in The New York Times.
Teeing up Saturday -- where Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, learns his fate, and may be part of that story that’s on repeat through the fall.
“Now engaged in a fierce battle to keep his job, Bennett, 76, is hearing from incensed Republican delegates that they want a fighter. They want someone to publicly and loudly combat what they see as the excesses of the Obama agenda,” Matt Canham writes in the Salt Lake Tribune.
“I do my best to give them anger and passion when I'm talking to them one on one,” Bennett tells Canham. “I don't necessarily toot my horn in the way I think most politicians do and I apparently have paid the price for it. I'm trying to repent.”
Alex Pappas, in the Daily Caller: “Republican Utah Sen. Bob Bennett -- who polls show to be the underdog against Tea Party-backed challengers -- could become the state’s first incumbent senator to lose his party’s nomination since the 1940s at this weekend’s GOP convention. The convention may yield the first high-profile example of outing the insiders.”
Bennett, to USA Today’s Kathy Kiely: “The single most overriding issue is anger at Washington.”
Ripples: “The scenario of a loss by Bennett -- a genteel appropriator who has a mostly conservative voting record but supported the Troubled Asset Relief Program and is seeking a fourth term after saying he’d serve only two -- has sparked a wave of melancholy over the possible departure of a highly respected behind-the-scenes player and close adviser to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell,” Politico’s Jonathan Martin writes. “And for those who must face the voters this year, the notion that a straight-shooting party stalwart like Bennett would become the first establishment scalp claimed by insurgent conservatives has sparked something else — fear of reflexive voting against any and all incumbents.”
Ron Brownstein with the big picture, at National Journal: “If the budding economic recovery accelerates, the GOP’s rightward march could leave it on shaky ground with voters focused more on results than ideology. It’s possible such a dynamic could help Democrats in November (especially in affluent districts), but it’s more likely to lift Obama in 2012. The president has almost certainly overestimated the public’s tolerance for government activism and will probably need to pivot toward reforming and streamlining Washington. But however well Republicans perform in 2010, a party too narrow for Specter, Crist, and maybe Bennett will face a tough challenge building a presidential majority coalition in 2012, when economic distress could be easing and the electorate swelling with more young people and minorities.”
In Hawaii -- getting out? “Despite spending more than $300,000, frustrated House Democrats may abandon efforts to win a special election in Hawaii after quiet diplomacy failed to end a high-level party feud that threatens their prospects,” the AP’s David Espo reports.
"The local Democrats haven't been able to come together and resolve that, so we'll have to re-evaluate our participation," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
In Pennsylvania -- getting tough: “Looks Like Those Bush Ads Worked,”John L. Micek reports in the Allentown Morning Call. Sen. Arlen Specter and Rep. Joe Sestak “are in a statistical dead heat in this morning's Morning Call/Muhlenberg College tracking poll. The two Democrats are at 43 percent each in the poll of 410 likely primary voters, with 13 percent undecided. Just yesterday, Specter held a 45-40 percent lead, with 14 percent undecided.”
Of those other calamities... “The oil spill is reaching far beyond the Gulf Coast and deep into American politics in an important election year,”Steven Thomma and David Lightman write for McClatchy Newspapers.“It's calling into question President Barack Obama's proposal to open new offshore areas to oil drilling. It's complicating already difficult efforts to pass a controversial bill aimed at curbing climate change. It's also all but certain to become a major issue in many of this fall's campaigns for control of Congress.” 
White House adviser Carol Browner, on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital With Al Hunt” this weekend: “This accident, this tragedy, is actually heightening people’s interest in energy in this country and in wanting a different energy plan.”
More on drilling -- FireDogLake.com uses President Obama’s own words (and recent pictures from the Gulf) against him, in a new ad: “Spill Here, Spill Now.”
Terror politics: “Senator Scott Brown responded to the attempted Times Square bombing yesterday by cosponsoring a bill that would allow the United States to strip Americans of citizenship if the government determines that an individual supported or joined a terrorist group,” The Boston Globe’s Farah Stockman and Matt Viser report. “But a host of scholars and fellow lawmakers, including the House Republican leader, Representative John Boehner of Ohio, immediately questioned the constitutionality of the proposal, saying it was at odds with a half-century of Supreme Court precedents that ruled that citizenship can be relinquished only voluntarily.”
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, per ABC’s Jake Tapper: “I have not heard anybody inside the administration that's been supportive of that idea.”
Coming Sunday, on “This Week”: “Attorney General Eric Holder sits down with This Week anchor Jake Tapper in his first Sunday morning interview to share the latest on the investigation. ... And, in a This Week EXCLUSIVE interview, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani explains why he thinks the accused bomb suspect should be declared an enemy combatant.”
SCOTUS maneuvering, with a pick possible any day now, and the smart money on early next week...
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, bringing the Obama agenda into the hearing room:“As government continues its rapid expansion, Americans are looking for judges in the mold of Chief Justice John Roberts, not Justice John Paul Stevens. They are looking for judges who will stay true to our Founders' vision instead of imposing their own. They are looking for judges who recognize the limits on government power; who restrain themselves to the text of the Constitution; and who will defend the rights of all citizens without bias, without prejudice and without hesitation.”
From the other side: “THE SUPREME COURT: CORPORATE AMERICA’S NEWEST SUBSIDIARY?” reads the ad from MoveOn, Alliance for Justice and People for the America Way, set to run in The Washington Post next week (The New York Times turned it down), with a judge wearing corporate logos for the likes of Enron, Wellpoint, and Goldman Sachs. “Americans need a Justice who will dispense justice to Americans, not protect corporate profits at our expense.”
Over where the politics is way more fun -- we’re hung, in Great Britain:
“As counting wrapped up in the few dozen seats yet to declare, David Cameron's Tories were on course to become the largest party in the Commons but about 20 seats short of the 326 needed for a majority,”Philippe Naughton and Roland Watson report in The Times of London.“[Gordon] Brown made clear that he had no intention of giving up power easily – his passage through Britain's most famous front door at 7am was a symbolic reminder that he remains Prime Minister and has the constitutional right to form a government. Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, admitted that his party had had a disappointing night, losing seats to both the Tories and Labour despite the excitement it had generated during the campaign.”
“Britain faced electoral stalemate on Friday and possibly days of wrangling to form a new government despite significant gains by the opposition Conservatives and damaging losses for Prime Minister Gordon Brown,” The New York Times’ John F. Burns and Alan Cowell writes. “Without an unassailable victory, [David] Cameron — and the country — could be heading for days of agonizing uncertainty as the two main parties set about trying to outmaneuver each other for power.”
Back home ... meet the birthers: “Fourteen percent of Americans say without prompting that they think Barack Obama was born in another country, rising to one in five when those with no opinion are offered that as a possibility. But for many it’s not a firm belief – and some appear not to hold it against him,” ABC’s Gary Langer writes.
“And perhaps surprisingly, about a third of so-called ‘birthers’ nonetheless approve of Obama’s work in office and express a favorable opinion of him personally. Still it’s mostly Obama critics who suggest he was born abroad; two-thirds of those who express that view also disapprove of his work in office and view him unfavorably overall. That, along with other data, supports the notion that some of this view is an expression of antipathy toward Obama, rather than a firm belief he was born in another country.”
Sarah Palin vs. ... tea partiers? ABC’s Teddy Davis: “Sarah Palin’s decision to break with Tea Party activists in California and to endorse Carly Fiorina for Senate has been met with grumbling from some on the Right who support Assemblymember Chuck DeVore. Palin is now using an update to her Facebook page to try to quell the unrest by touting Fiorina’s ‘pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, pro-military, and pro-strict border security’ credentials.”
Alienating her base? “Former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin's endorsement of Carly Fiorina in California's Senate race has prompted a fervent blowback on her Facebook page, long Palin's safe haven for delivering her message,” Politico’s Andy Barr writes. “The revolt is coming from Palin supporters who also back Chuck DeVore – a tea party favorite who is campaigning against Fiorina in the Republican primary.”
T-Paw, falling/rising, with the state Supreme Court knocking down spending cuts: “It's been a bad week for Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. Of course, it's also been a good week for Republican Presidential Contender Tim Pawlenty,” Gerald Seib writes in his “Capital Journal” column. “In sum, this week's events define what Mr. Pawlenty is: a classic, fiscally conservative Midwestern Republican governor. In a period of voter discontent, Republicans have two years to decide whether that's the right stuff for the times.”

After prom -- award season. Tammy Haddad’s WHCA.com hands out honors to, among others, Rahm Emanuel, Dan Pfeiffer, Tony Romo, Morgan Freeman, Bob Barnett, Greta Van Susteren and John Coale.
The ONE campaign does Mother’s Day -- in six words per entry. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn.: “She's loved you from the beginning.” Dana Perino: “Carrying heaviest loads with lightest hearts.” Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.: “Mothers determine our quality of life.” Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif.: “Healthy Mothers Today, Healthy Children Tomorrow.”
New partnership -- welcoming Chris Cillizza, Dan Balz, Karen Tumulty, Anne Kornblut, and others at The Washington Post to the “Top Line” family, starting Monday.

The Kicker:
“In Utah the only ‘anybody’ they can vote against who happens to be there turns out to be me.” -- Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, on what it means to be in Washington these days.

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May 7, 2010 in 2010 , The Note