On Planned Parenthood and Absurdity the Day After

It should be noted that the pay of our soldiers -- who sacrifice their very lives for us -- and the entire nation hung in the balance because republicans don't like Planned Parenthood. Somewhere along the way a very important organization that provides contraceptives, cancer and STD screening and other health services for women (and men) became known as a liberal organization, likely because the organization also provides abortion services, which is 3% of what it does (see a chart). Jon Kyl, one of our nation's leaders, outright lied saying 90% of what Planned Parenthood does is abortions. 
Abortion has become known as a liberal thing, but I'm 100% certain republicans get abortions too.
While Planned Parenthood gets $360 million in federal money annually, it's illegal to use the money for abortion services.
Planned Parenthood PREVENTS PREGNANCIES by providing contraceptives and information. It's called Planned Parenthood, which means planning for parenthood. Along the way, Planned Parenthood became labeled a liberal organization and those on the right irrationally demonize it.
Who loses? Women do, especially the poor, as always. WHEN THE POOR LOSE WE ALL LOSE. Seems to me this nation is always hostage to the demands of the left and the right and they're always arguing about abortion. They never actually solve anything. They don't reduce abortions. They're just more entrenched.
Where is the reason? It's absurd that our government was set to shutdown because of Planned Parenthood.
The Obama and Boehner script when it was down to the wire:

But when Boehner later asked for the elimination of funds for Title X -- spending for women's health and family planning organizations that also provide abortion services, the aide said the president flatly refused.
The president replied, "Nope. Zero."
Boehner continued to push to discuss the funds, the aide recalled.
The President repeated: "Nope. Zero."
"'John, this is it,'" the aide described the president as saying. "'This is it, John."
There was a long pause as no one spoke in the Oval Office spoke.
The Planned Parenthood issue was resolved that Thursday night. MSNBC

Kyl Can't Come Up With Any Reason to Stop START

It's a forgone conclusion that Jon Kyl is opposing START for political reasons. I think Kyl has a petty personal Alpha male issue with Obama. Kyl and Durbin debate the ratification of the treaty with Russia, but Kyl can't come up with any substantive opposition:

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Republicans Break Promise to Ban Earmarks

Republicans were running off at the mouth about earmarks and wasteful government spending, even Mitch McConnell agreed to ban earmarks. But, in the fastest broken promise ever, Jon Kyl, who's battling Obama over the START treaty, reaped a big one:

Senate Republicans' ban on earmarks — money included in a bill by a lawmaker to benefit a home-state project or interest — was short-lived.
Only three days after GOP senators and senators-elect renounced earmarks, Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, the No. 2 Senate Republican, got himself a whopping $200 million to settle an Arizona Indian tribe's water rights claim against the government.
Kyl slipped the measure into a larger bill sought by President Barack Obama and passed by the Senate on Friday to settle claims by black farmers and American Indians against the federal government. Kyl's office insists the measure is not an earmark, and the House didn't deem it one when it considered a version earlier this year. But it meets the know-it-when-you-see-it test, critics say.AP

White House Says Kyl Fibbing

Immigration will never be resolved because there are too many bigots involved in the debate. You can't have a rational debate or develop reasonable policy with bigots.

It's pretty disgusting that this issue hasn't been resolved by now. Many republicans don't want immigration reform. They want the status quo so they can continue to exploit immigrants for cheap labor. That's all anyone cares about. If there is reform, then businesses would actually have to pay people wages.

If anyone really wanted to stop illegal immigration, it would be really easy.

Jail executives for several years when they're found guilty of hiring illegal immigrants, whether they hired them unwittingly or not. Problem solved.

In a video that started circulating among conservative blogs over the weekend, the Arizona Republican is seen telling supporters in North Phoenix that in a private meeting in the Oval Office, Obama said “the problem” with border enforcement measures is that “if we secure the border then [Republicans] won’t have any reason to support comprehensive immigration reform.”
Kyl said the president’s supposed statement is proof that Democrats “don’t want to secure the border unless or until it is combined with comprehensive immigration reform.”

But in a statement to POLITICO, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer denied Kyl’s account of the conversation, saying “the president didn’t say that and Senator Kyl knows it.” Read it all at Politico.

There was a moment on This Week on Sunday between NPR's Michelle Martin and Fox's Greta.
Greta argued that Arizona's immigration law doesn't allow racial profiling and the Obama administration should acknowledge that. Michelle Martin gave Greta a dose of reality on what's wrong with Arizona's law. Watch:

Obama's Schedule May 5 Includes Cinco de Mayo Remarks

Obama will meet with republicans Jon Kyl at 11:15 am eastern, followed up by Orrin Hatch at 11:45 am. They are both on the judiciary committee, so the meetings might have to do with Obama's nomination for Supreme Court Justice. Obama might nominate someone this week.
At 1:30 pm, Obama speaks and signs the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act.
At 6 pm, Obama and Michelle Obama will attend a Cinco de Mayo reception.

Tom Vilsack, Agriculture Secretary, will hold a clean energy forum at 2:30 pm eastern. It will be live streamed at WhiteHouse.gov.

McCain Blames Federal Government for New Arizona Immigration Law

How long has John McCain been a senator? How many opportunities did he miss to work on immigration reform?

Media Hype on Next Supreme Court Justice Pick

After watching Jon Kyl and Chuck Schumer discuss the selection of the next Justice, I came away thinking that it's the media is stirring up controversy on the replacement of Justice John Paul Stevens. Kyl all but rules out a filibuster. From everything that I've read, no matter who Obama chooses, the court can only become more conservative because Stevens was very liberal. And given Obama's choice of Sonia Sotomayor, it doesn't strike me that Obama is going to pick someone based on their ideology.

This Week roundtable discusses the next Justice. George Will says there will be no fight over Obama's choice and Arianna Huffington says there will be. Arianna, seeing through her very liberal eyes, didn't even hear what Kyl said this morning. Arianna's pick: Elizabeth Warren. Good grief. I like Warren's oversight work with TARP, but she's clearly not judge material. Some people only see the world through political ideological eyes and Arianna is one of those.

Meet the Press roundtable on the next justice:

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Republicans Serve No Purpose

At every turn, republicans have made themselves an obstacle. I understand differing viewpoints. I understand opposition but republicans have gone deeper and further in their opposition of Obama. It's almost wicked.

Jon Kyl essentially dismisses Obama's Afghan plan before it's even announced, says there shouldn't be an exit plan. There better be an exit strategy. The more rational and reasonable among us are expecting to hear how the war ends:

Mother Stops Chemo as Family Runs Out of Money

This one is for Jon Kyl who doesn't believe people die because of a lack of healthcare insurance. Really. That's what he said: "I'm not sure that it's a fact that more people die because they don't have health insurance." Watch him say it here. This is also for the democrats quibbling over a public option. They need to do whatever it takes to make sure that Americans get access to affordable healthcare:

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Cheney Emerges From Dark Location to Throw Stones

Repulsive Dick emerges once again. It's not Halloween yet!
I can't stand this guy. His time of influence is over. He wreaked havoc on our country. What's disturbing is every once in a while he crawls out of his hole, throws a few stones (this time he says Obama is "afraid") and crawls back in.
He's assigned the regular dirty work to Liz Cheney:

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Jon Kyl introduced Dick, who spoke at the Center for Security Policy, who gave Dick an award:

Having announced his Afghanistan strategy last March, President Obama now seems afraid to make a decision, and unable to provide his commander on the ground with the troops he needs to complete his mission.

President Obama has said he understands the stakes for America. When he announced his new strategy he couched the need to succeed in the starkest possible terms, saying, quote, “If the Afghan government falls to the Taliban – or allows al-Qaeda to go unchallenged – that country will again be a base for terrorists who want to kill as many of our people as they possibly can.” Speech transcript here

Kyl Doubts That People Die Without Health Insurance

Jon Kyl lives in a bubble. "I'm not sure that it's a fact that more people die because they don't have health insurance." That's simply one of the most idiotic statements I've heard all year. What an arse. That's a good example of how clueless republicans are on the topic of healthcare.
On to a subject that republicans love: Why shouldn't war costs be deficit neutral, David Gregory asks Jon Kyl.

Valerie Jarrett on Meet the Press Oct. 18

The first thing David Gregory does is throw up "Obama's economy" stats on the screen, laying blame. Gregory knows, anyone who's paying attention knows, that Obama is not to blame for those stats. There's no feasible way that democrats or republicans could've turned the economy around within 10 months.
The economic mess we got ourselves into will take time to recover from. We're at a point in history, reckoning with a number of different things, such as other nations emerging as more economically powerful, more educated than the U.S.
The nation's economy is fundamentally screwed up. It's been driven by greed at the top and consumer greed for more things. That kind of economy is not sustainable.
The question is, what's to be done?
At the roundtable, they discuss Maria Shriver's new report, A Women's Nation, which gives fuel to the idea that workplaces need to be more accommodating to families.

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Obama Wishes Sotomayor Good Luck

Obama wishes judge Sonia Sotomayor good luck (that's really what he's doing in the photo) as her hearings begin tomorrow.
Sotomayor is almost certain to be confirmed but republicans have to have their say. Jon Kyl explains the republican strategy on Sotomayor (see video below). Today on This Week, Kyl quoted a Rasmussen poll saying that most people were against Sotomayor. That poll is contrary to most every other poll and it is an odd poll because it goes on to say that even though only 37% want her confirmed:

84% of the nation’s voters still expect Sotomayor to be confirmed. That figure includes 58% who say her confirmation is Very Likely.

I don't think much of polls, unless it's a positive one and then I might point it out, which is exactly the reason I don't think much of polls.

Republicans Scared of Healthcare Reform

On healthcare, democrats just need to keep their head down and get the job done. Mitch McConnell says the democrats own the government.

Trade Nominee Has Tax Issue But Might Catch a Break

Three's a trend. Five means that the tax system needs overhauled. Jon Kyl calls Ron Kirk's tax underpayment inadvertent.

CQP: The Senate Finance Committee reported Monday that President Obama’s nominee for U.S. Trade Representative — former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk — underpaid his taxes by a total of $9,975 for 2005, 2006 and 2007, making Kirk the fifth Obama nominee to face tax-related problems during the confirmation process.

It was not immediately clear whether the development would threaten Kirk’s nomination, with one top Senate Republicans saying the tax oversights appeared “inadvertent.”

“Mayor Kirk has agreed to promptly file amended returns reflecting the adjustments discussed in this memo,” the Finance Committee said in its report. Kirk has agreed to file his amended return this week.

Obama announced that Kirk would be his choice as chief trade negotiator in December, but the committee has not yet acted on his nomination. Chairman Max Baucus , D-Mont., said last week that he was unaware of any problems with Kirk’s nomination.

The committee announced Monday that it would postpone Kirk’s confirmation hearing from March 5 to March 9, but a committee aide said the reason for the delay is a scheduling conflict with a planned White House health care summit.

“Mayor Kirk is the right person for this job and I will work to move his nomination quickly,” Baucus said Monday. “I am confident he can successfully restore the confidence of Congress and the American people in a balanced international trade agenda. I look forward to his testimony before the Finance Committee next week.”

Minority Whip Jon Kyl , R-Ariz., said it was too early for him to judge any peril to the nomination or gauge how his colleagues would react.

“In his case, it looked like it was inadvertent,” Kyl said.

What happened?

According to a committee report, in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007, Kirk asked that honoraria received for speeches he gave be assigned to his alma mater, Austin College. As a result, he and his paid tax preparer did not think that the money, which totaled $37,750, counted as taxable income. In 2005, however, Kirk deducted four honoraria totaling $7,500, as charitable donations.

Emanuel Reaching Out To Republicans

Obama needlepoint at obamaartreport.com

Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff, is returning republicans' calls. Gasp. Isn't that the way it should be?

WSJ: Two weeks after his selection as President-elect Barack Obama's White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel met with Senate Republican leaders, gave out his cellphone number and personal email address -- and promised to return any communication within 24 hours.

Testing the pledge, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl called him within days to talk about a few potential Cabinet nominees. Within 10 minutes, the two were talking. "They are getting off to a good start in terms of reaching out," said Sen. Kyl, an Arizona Republican.

That conversation -- and dozens more since Mr. Obama's election -- are part of an extensive effort Mr. Obama has launched to woo Republicans. He hopes the effort will both ease the way for an aggressive, decidedly liberal policy blitz after he takes office, and establish terrain for a good working relationship in areas where the parties can find common ground. First up will be a half-trillion-dollar stimulus plan he hopes will win Republican votes.

"We are showing we're not just going to lip synch this," Mr. Emanuel said in an interview this week.

Following up:

Monday, Mr. Obama called Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the conservative ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee, to express his hope that the pair could work together on intelligence matters. A day later, the Michigan Republican called Mr. Emanuel to follow up, and he, too, got a call back within 10 minutes.

Mr. Hoekstra knows Mr. Emanuel from the locker room at the House gym, where the pair often shaved side by side. The pair had a half-hour conversation last month, and the lawmaker told Mr. Emanuel is was the longest talk he has had with a senior White House official in eight years.

McCain "Misspoke" on Troop Levels

oopsies.
so what says mccain's foreign policy adviser? so what? here's what: mccain is trying to say obama doesn't know what he's doing. it's interesting to note that the only way that bush can have any remnant of hope of not being the absolutely worse president in history, in history books, anyway, is if mccain wins and keeps the war going.

Even then, however, the Pentagon has said the troop levels in Iraq are expected to be at 140,000, about 8,000 more than they were prior to the troop buildup, because some of the support troops sent to Iraq would be needed.
In a conference call, Randy Scheunenmann, Mr. McCain’s senior national security and foreign policy adviser, along with Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona and a McCain supporter, went through a variety of tortured explanations defending the accuracy of Mr. McCain’s statement, before essentially conceding he had misspoken.
They criticized nitpicking over “verb tenses,” saying the examination distracted from the broader issue that Mr. Obama was ignoring the facts on the ground in Iraq, that the troop buildup was making progress.
“Take the worst possibility here, which is Senator McCain misspoke,” Senator Kyl said. “And that because of the specific words used, what he said was not entirely accurate. O.K. so what?”
Obama’s Advisers
Obama’s Team
Obama’s Foreign Policy Brain Trust