Scalia speech to new legislators faulted

Bachmann for president? Tea Party darling blames media
Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann, champion-in-chief of the House Tea Party Caucus, blames the media for all the recent chatter about her status as a potential Presidential Candidate. “I’m not concerned about my own personal ambition,” she tells NBC News. “Right now, too many people in the media are concerned about who will be the nominee in 2012.” That’s a wee bit odd given that the speculation began after her office announced a trip to the presidential f...

Tea Party star Michele Bachmann may have eyes on White House
Move over, Sarah Palin. There may be a new Tea Party star with eyes on the White House. Rep. Michele Bachmann, a Minnesota Republican who once said God told her to run for Congress, is planning a Speech in her native Iowa later this month, fueling speculation she will run in 2012. On Wednesday, Bachmann spokesman Sergio Gor confirmed an ABC News report of the congresswoman's potential White House aspirations. "Nothing is off the table," Gor told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Bachmann's chief o...

Jerrold Nadler Gets Both the Constitution and Torah Wrong in The Same Interview
Progressives have been lining up against Speaker Boehner’s plan to open tomorrow’s House session with a reading of the United States Constitution. Their objections come even though the Democrats have been invited to participate in the ceremony.  Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s (R-Va.) office told the Washington Post that he would issue a letter advising Democrats they are welcome to take part. But that is not good enough for the  progressive Congressman from New York Jerrold Nadler, h...

A tragicomic view of climate bill failure: Now it gets worse
Not so very long ago some people were calling Climate Change the signature issue of our time, the most urgent of urgent tasks, a crisis our leaders in Washington absolutely had to do something about right friggin' yesterday. The same people are still saying it. But yesterday has come and gone. And what happened? A Google search on the subject will give you umpty-ump million results. Congress gave us exactly zero. Energy-and-climate blogger Dave Roberts and illustrator Thomas Pitilli, with the h...

Rock on, reps
A new rule proposed by the incoming Republican majority in the House will allow members to use BlackBerrys, iPhones, iPads and other electronic devices on the floor as long as such activity doesn't "impair decorum." - The Los Angeles Times "Point of order, Mr. Speaker!" "Yes, Minority Leader Pelosi?" "I'm sorry to interrupt our esteemed colleague's rendition of 'The Star Spangled Banner' on Nintendo's Guitar Hero, but I - " "Minority Leader Pelosi. Mi...

Authors: CIA waited years to stop nuclear proliferation
The US government is guilty of allowing nuclear materials and intelligence to proliferate among to some of the most dangerous regimes in the world for more than 30 years, a new book alleges. In Fallout, authors Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins charge that the CIA waited until it was too late to stop the A.Q. Kahn network from disseminating Nuclear Weapons technology to North Korea, Libya and Iran. "They could literally have stopped him in his tracks [in the 1970s]," Franz told NPR's Fresh Ai...

Israeli court approves gender segregated buses
Israel's Supreme Court has issued a ruling permitting the separation of men and women on some buses serving minority ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, but only if the passengers agree. Court spokeswoman Ayelet Filo says the approval is for a trial period of a year. Ultra-Orthodox practice forbids men from touching women, except for their wives. Men and women are separated in public. Recently on two bus lines serving their communities, women were instructed to sit in the back. Human Rights and w...

State legislators unveil plan to restrict citizenship for illegal immigrants' kids
WASHINGTON — A group of State Legislators came to Washington on Wednesday to unveil legal language they say is a blueprint for states to pass Immigration laws that might force a Supreme Court review of the 14th Amendment, which grants U.S. Citizenship to any child born on U.S. soil, regardless of the parents' citizenship. The group is pushing state Legislation with two approaches: It would create two tiers of birth certificates, one that states would produce only for babies born to U.S. c...

PROMISES, PROMISES: GOP drops some out of the gate
(01-06) 03:06 PST WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans have already violated some of the vows they made in taking stewardship of the House. Their pledge to cut $100 billion from the Budget in one year won't be kept. And for a coming vote seeking to Repeal the Health Care overhaul, the first major initiative of the new Congress, lawmakers won't be allowed to propose changes to the Legislation despite Republican promises to end such heavy-handed tactics from the days of Democratic control. Is business...

Democrats Say GOP Exempting $1 Trillion from Deficit
WASHINGTON — Democrats are accusing newly empowered House Republicans of exempting more than $1 Trillion in proposed Tax Cuts and higher spending over the next 10 years from a promise to cut federal Deficits. The exemptions include a bill to Repeal last year's Health Care Legislation as well as GOP-backed proposals extending a series of Tax Cuts for upper income filers that are due to expire in two years, according to a tally several Senate Democrats were to present at a midmorning new c...

Democrats still playing defense with health care monstrosity
Image via Wikipedia Caucus Blog, NY Times: Democratic leaders in Washington plan to spend the next week doing what they all but refused to do during the 2010 Midterm Elections: mount a vigorous defense of President Obama’s Health Care Legislation. The “all fronts” plan is a response to the decision by the new House Speaker, John A. Boehner, to schedule a vote next Wednesday on a complete Repeal of the Health Care law that Mr. Obama signed last March. Senior Democratic officia...

Rep. Frank Guinta Becomes Sixth Republican To Reject Government-Sponsored Health Care For Himself
Last month, then-congressman-elect Andy Harris (R-MD) set off a firestorm when he demanded to know why his government-sponsored Health Care would not kick in until four weeks after taking office. Harris, who ran on a platform of repealing Health Care reform, was roundly criticized for decrying government playing a role in delivering Health Care to the American public, then demanding his own government-subsidized coverage once he took office. Following this episode, Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) sent...

Dems charge GOP with straying from campaign promises
Republicans are learning quickly of the scrutiny they'll face for any perceived stray from their 2010 campaign-trail promises. Democrats are trumpeting examples of behavior by the new Republican House that, they charge, represent backtracking or reversals from promises the GOP had made, particularly in its "Pledge to America." The barbs being leveled toward Republicans represent the double-eged sword the party created for itself with the Pledge and other campaign-trail promises to win votes: ...

Republicans Read The Constitution Today. Maybe They'll Learn Something.
Today, the new House Republican leadership will spend two hours on the House floor reading the Constitution. This will be one of many acts from the House Republicans over the next two years which will not create any jobs. But I am hopeful that those doing the reading - especially those who have been ignorantly screeching that everything from the Minimum Wage to the EPA is Unconstitutional -- will actually learn something. The Founders put some words in, and left some words out, that might su...

Tea Party Pollutocrat David Koch entertains newly elected Republicans on first day of new Congress
Yesterday, as Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) was sworn in as the Speaker of the House for the 112th Congress, ThinkProgress witnessed a group of Koch Industries Lobbyists entering the Capitol along with members of Congress and their families. Tim Phillips, a former business partner to Jack Abramoff who now leads the Koch front group Americans for Prosperity, was with Nancy Pfotenhauer, a former corporate lobbyist for Koch Industries. ThinkProgress learned that David Koch, the Polluter Billionaire wh...

Toward Restoring Constitutional Government
In light of today’s reading of the Constitution in the new House, what misinterpretations of the Constitution do you regularly see in American politics? And are House Republicans implying that the previous Democratic majority did not have a firm grasp of the government’s founding document? Thanks to the Tea Party, as I wrote in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal, Congress seems to be rediscovering the Constitution — or at least many House Republicans seem to be. When memb...

No constitutional compromise in pursuit of happy sartorial values!
No constitutional Compromise in pursuit of happy sartorial values! One of the first things I read this morning was Steny Hoyer's accusation that Tea Party supporters have unhappy families: There are a whole lot of people in the Tea Party that I see in these polls who don't want any compromise. My presumption is they have unhappy families. All of you have been in families: single-parent, two-parents, whatever. Multiple parent and a stepfather. The fact is life is about trying to reach accommoda...

Does the Constitution Protect Against Sex Discrimination?
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia recently gave an interview to the California Lawyer where he said that the Constitution does not prohibit sex Discrimination against women and gays. That's up to the legislatures, he said. CL: In 1868, when the 39th Congress was debating and ultimately proposing the 14th Amendment, I don't think anybody would have thought that equal protection applied to sex discrimination, or certainly not to Sexual Orientation. So does that mean that we've go...

Colo. marijuana rules face legal challenge
Some Medical Marijuana patients want to stop Colorado's looming regulations for how pot is sold. A group of marijuana patients have asked the state's Supreme Court to overturn large parts of two Colorado laws passed last year to regulate the Medical Marijuana industry. Many of the rules are expected to take effect later this year. The patients' petition argues that some of the proposed regulations, such as a requirement that pot shops record marijuana sales on video, violate patient Privacy. The...

Can Banks Foreclose on Mortgages They Do Not Own?
“The record in this case reflects how Mortgage Lending changed in recent years and how the industry failed to ensure that its new Business Model conformed to state law. . . Having profited greatly from practices regarding the assignment and securitization of mortgages not grounded in the law, it is reasonable for them to bear the cost of failing to ensure that such practices conformed to Massachusetts law.” -Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley wrote in a brief supporting the borr...

GOP state legislators aim to redefine citizenship
WASHINGTON — A group of Republican State Legislators came to Washington on Wednesday to unveil a blueprint for state Immigration laws that might force a Supreme Court review of the 14th Amendment, which grants Citizenship to any child born on U.S. soil, regardless of the parents' legal status. The group is pushing Legislation that would take two approaches: It would create two tiers of birth certificates, one of which states would only produce for babies born to U.S. citizens and legal r...

The Next Six Years
Ed Kilgore wants liberals to lower their expectations, because he thinks the House is likely to stay Republican and the Senate could very easily go Republican too. One thing he doesn’t mention: Even if a second-term Obama faces a Republican Congress liberals could still make serious progress (on their terms) in the courts. But how a Republican Senate would handle a Democratic Supreme Court nomination is hard to predict. No president’s nominee has had to win confirmation from a Senate...

Michele Bachmann refuses to rule out 2012 presidential run (Daily Caller)
Rep. Michele Bachmann did not rule out the possibility of a 2012 presidential run on Wednesday, but called discussions of candidacy premature at this point. “Can you imagine two years of speculating about who the nominee will be?” Bachmann asked Greta VanSusteren. “It’s boring.” Speculation arose earlier in the day when it was announced that the Minnesota Republican and Tea Party darling would headline a Fundraiser in Iowa later this month held by Iowans for Tax R...

CBO says repealing healthcare reform would spike deficit by $230 billion
Congressional Budget scorekeepers said Thursday that Republicans' effort to Repeal Healthcare Reform would increase the Deficit by about $230 billion over the first 10 years, adding fodder to Democrats' argument that the GOP is violating a key campaign pledge with its first major vote. In a letter sent Thursday to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the Congressional Budget Office says it is providing a preliminary analysis to the Repeal bill, which is scheduled to take place Wednesday. A mor...

Dem Talking Points On Republicans Accepting Government Health Care
Pursuant to the Democrat motion to force Republicans to publicly accept or reject Health Care, a Democratic source passed along the talking points Dems plan to use as Republicans begin to draw on their health care benefits. Wednesday night, House Dems used a procedural maneuver to make Republicans vote on whether or not to publicly announce when they begin to draw on their government provided benefits. The Democrats plan to use that vote to highlight what they call the Republican hypocrisy of ...