June 2010

<p>I think this is one of the best ideas I have <a href="http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0629/conyers-throws-grayson-cosponsors-war-making-poor-act/">ever heard out of Congress:</a></p>

<blockquote>
  <p>It seems that Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) would agree, perpetual war is making you poor.</p>

  <p>To begin rectifying the situation, he's joined with Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL) in co-sponsoring the &quot;War is Making You Poor Act,&quot; which would limit defense spending to $548.9 billion: the exact figure alloted in the fiscal year 2011 budget.</p>

  <p>The act also seeks to utilize an additional $159.3 billion set aside for &quot;discretionary&quot; operations abroad to relieve the full federal income tax burden on every American's first $35,000 earned per year, or up to $70,000 per year for married couples.</p>

  <p>According to <a href="http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2010/06/rep_john_conyers_co-sponsoring.html">Detroit publication MLive</a>, Conyers, who chairs the powerful <a href="http://judiciary.house.gov/about/bio.html">House Committee on the Judiciary</a>, is adding his name to the roster of support.</p>

  <p>&quot;I believe that the thing we need to do is to take that $159 billion that the President has set aside – we’re not saying he has to stop the war, we’re not giving a cut-off date for the war – we’re simply saying you need to fund that out of the base budget of $549 billion,&quot; Grayson said of his bill. &quot;And we take 90 percent of that and give it back to the American people.&quot;</p>
</blockquote>

Oh My! How dare this happen (via Fox):

Several reporters were caught on an open mike mocking Sarah Palin for delivering a "roller coaster"-type speech after she addressed California State University, Stanislaus on Friday.

As the former Alaska governor stepped off stage at the sold-out dinner fundraiser and the sound of applause faded away, voices identified as reporters in a viral video could be heard one after another cracking jokes about the speech.

Writing in the L.A. Times, former Bush aide Jimmy Orr has this to say:

Now, cries of media bias against conservatives will be supercharged with an....

... audio recording going viral that captured several reporters mocking a Sarah Palin speech that they were covering.

The yet-to-be-identified (and perhaps soon-to-be-fired) reporters were located in the “media overflow” room at Cal State Stanislaus, a California college where Palin was speaking on Friday.

Immediately after her speech concluded, the insults began in rapid-fire succession, with each reporter seeming to try to outdo each other.

As Media Matters points out:

Mocking a politician from a media overflow room is, of course, evidence of “media bias,” and perhaps even a firing offense -- as long as the politician being mocked is a Republican. When reporters heckled Al Gore while watching him in a debate, nobody got fired -- instead, they just continued lying about him in print and on the air. But reporters always seem to forget about that when they talk about media "bias."

The Senate's longest serving member, Robert Byrd, died this morning at the age of 92. This really isn't a big shocker. Byrd's health has been deteriorating for years and given his age, it was pretty much expected that this was coming after the news of his serious condition yesterday.

As far as a replacement for Byrd, well Nate Silver points out the timing on this. It looks like there will be a special election. If Byrd would have held on one more week, then the governor would have been able to appoint a replacement.

And then there's the big question - the fate of financial reform. That's pretty much uncertain now that the Democrats have one less vote. My guess is that it will be gutted even further to bring on Snowe or Collins.

Ben Smith at Politico just posted this:

Washington Post Communications Director Kris Coratti emails: "Dave offered his resignation and we accepted it."

That's following yesterday's drama where Weigel apparently aired some frustrations regarding some right wing media types on a mailing list:

FishbowlDC has obtained e-mails written by WaPo's conservative-beat blogger Dave Weigel, that the scribe sent to JournoList, a listserv for liberal journalists. (Read up on JournoList with Yahoo! News's Michael Calderone's 2009 story that he wrote for Politico).

Seems Weigel doesn't like (and that would be putting it mildly) at least some of the conservatives he covers. Poor Drudge - Weigel wants him to light himself on fire.

Weigel posted an apology for his comments yesterday, but it seems that the damage had already been done.

This highlights an interesting double standard in our media today. You can call a Supreme Court Justice a "goat fucker" or even urge people to pull guns on census workers. What happens with that? You go on to become a contributor at one of the nation's biggest cable news outlets. However, if you blast someone like Matt Drudge, you will find yourself on the unemployment line.