Oliver Willis

Granted, I’m sure at the end of the day the Senate Dems will disappoint me and capitulate, they’re at least saying something about it now.

Heath Shuler sucks.

Heath Shuler sucked as the Redskins starting quarterback for the 4 mins he held the job, and he has sucked as a “Democrat” in congress who thinks his calling is to attack Democrats and knife Pelosi in the back.

Heath Shuler sucks.

So I wonder if the University of Tennessee understands that while Heath played well for them in his college years, his post-college life has largely been a giant bowl of suck, and I’m betting he’ll suck at being an athletic director.

That said, if he leaves congress, that institution will suck a little less. (via Todd, who understands that Heath Shuler sucks)

I wish I weren’t so cynical that I would actually believe that the majority leader of the US House Of Representatives would actually push us to financial chaos in order to personally profit. But I am that cynical because I’ve watched these people for years now.

Last year the Wall Street Journal reported that Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House, had between $1,000 and $15,000 invested in ProShares Trust Ultrashort 20+ Year Treasury EFT. The fund aggressively “shorts” long-term U.S. Treasury bonds, meaning that it performs well when U.S. debt is undesirable. (A short is when the trader hopes to profit from the decline in the value of an asset.)

According to his latest financial disclosure statement, which covers the year 2010 and has been publicly available since this spring, Cantor still has up to $15,000 in the same fund. Contacted by Salon this week, Cantor’s office gave no indication that the Virginia Republican, who has played a leading role in the debt ceiling negotiations, has divested himself of these holdings since his last filing. Unless an agreement can be reached, the U.S. could begin defaulting on its debt payments on Aug. 2. If that happens and Cantor is still invested in the fund, the value of his holdings would skyrocket.

The 6th Circuit has affirmed the constitutionality of the health care reform law.

We find that the minimum coverage provision is a valid exercise of legislative power by Congress under the Commerce Clause and therefore AFFIRM the decision of the district court.

A few times in his press conference today, President Obama made reference to coporate jets and the people that own them. As he said, this is a class of people who can easily afford slightly increased taxes, and they should if it means the future solvency of the United States.

Conservatives on Twitter weren’t having this! How dare Obama say anything about corporate jets, how could he? How could he single out the uber-wealthy instead of promising to throw a low-class minoritiy into a wood chipper? How the heck could he not?

Frankly, Obama was a little too tepid in singling out the people who tanked our economy and didn’t even get so much as a slap on the wrists.

I am tired of this.

The Obama administration will not move forward on a controversial proposal to have “secret shoppers” pose as patients to investigate how difficult it is for patients to receive primary care.

“On April 28th, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services submitted a notice to the Federal Register regarding a proposed study that would examine access to primary care,” an HHS spokesman said in a statement. “After reviewing feedback received during the public comment period, we have determined that now is not the time to move forward with this research project. Instead, we will pursue other initiatives that build on our efforts to increase access to health care providers nationwide.”

New Yorkers understand that gay people have some money they’d like to spend.

While the law does not take effect until 30 days after the June 24 signing by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New York City is already working on a marketing campaign touting it as a destination for gay nuptials. New York is the largest of six U.S. states to sanction gay unions

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s “NYC I Do” campaign, set to launch soon, “will create hundreds of millions of dollars in additional economic impact to the city’s $31 billion tourism industry, and have a positive impact on tourism-industry jobs,” said George Fertitta, chief executive officer at New York & Company, the city’s marketing office.

What Are You Waiting For? from Fix Gun Checks on Vimeo.

This is pretty funny.

Oh my, this campaign roll out is a Gingrichian delight. Here’s Ron Carey, Michele Bachmann’s former chief of staff, discussing his former boss in the Des Moines Register:

Having seen the two of them, up close and over a long period of time, it is clear to me that while Tim Pawlenty possesses the judgment, the demeanor, and the readiness to serve as president, Michele Bachmann decidedly does not.

The Bachmann campaign and congressional offices I inherited were wildly out of control. Stacks upon stacks of unopened contributions filled the campaign office while thousands of communications from citizens waited for an answer. If she is unable, or unwilling, to handle the basic duties of a campaign or congressional office, how could she possibly manage the magnitude of the presidency?

BURN.

You knew it was going to happen at some point. Here are the edits some Bachmann fan attempted to add to Wikipedia in order to prove Bachmann’s false allegation that the then-child John Quincy Adams was a founding father. They were soon reverted with an admonition to “Please don’t edit an historical article based on current events.”

They nearly killed the economy once, their refusal to raise the debt ceiling without more tax breaks for Paris Hilton and Bill Gates could yank the breathing tube again. Talk about a death panel.

If Congress fails to raise the national debt limit by early August, the Obama Treasury Department will have to choose between defaulting on obligations to the country’s creditors — triggering higher interest rates and perhaps damaging the country’s credit rating for months and years to come — or freezing outlays to contractors, entitlement beneficiaries and others who are also expecting prompt payment as well. In either case, the macroeconomic impact will be staggering, according to Zandi.

“I think we go into recession and my forecast would be blown out of the water,” he said. “I think if we get to August 2nd and there is no debt ceiling [increase] and there has to be significant spending cuts, I think even if Congress and the administration reverse themselves days later, I think the damage will have been serious and we’ll probably be thrown into a recession.”

I would advise President Obama to appeal to their sense of patriotism, but who are we trying to kid here?

I first remember hearing about this idea from, of all people, Ralph Nader. His personal foibles aside, in light of what we’ve gone through and the inadequacies of the reforms that have been passed – is it time for this idea?

We know what the death penalty for individuals means: Commit an egregious crime, die at the hands of the state. What does it mean to talk about the ”death penalty” for corporations? Simply this: Commit an egregious wrong, and have your charter revoked. In other words, lose the state’s permission to exist. It’s an intriguing concept, because most of us never think about corporations needing anyone’s permission to exist. But they do.

Throughout the nation’s history, the states have had — and still have — the authority to give birth to a corporation, by granting a corporate charter, and to impose the death penalty on a corporate wrongdoer by revoking its charter. Activist-author Richard Grossman points out that in 1890, for example, New York’s highest court revoked the charter of the North River Sugar Refining Corporation — referring to the judgment explicitly as one of ”corporate death.” It was once widely understood that the states had this power. ”New York, Ohio, Michigan and Nebraska revoked the charters of oil, match, sugar and whiskey trusts” in the 1800s, Grossman wrote in the pamphlet, ”Taking Care of Business: Citizenship and the Charter of Incorporation,” co-authored with Frank Adams.

For many decades now, this vital power has lain dormant in the public mind. But a small group of activists led by Grossman is hoping to resurrect it. They believe that to stem the tide of growing and unaccountable corporate power, it’s not enough to rely on regulation, litigation, legislation, and law enforcement. Grossman and his Cambridge-based Project on Corporations, Law and Democracy want citizens to reclaim the power to put corporations to death.

Our financial system still hangs by a thread, and while the rich on the top end of it have all the perks in the world – there’s nothing really protecting the rest of us from their mania. My guess is it is all going to come crashing down again for anything real to be done. Unfortunately.

This is an active campaign to undermine the basics of America.

House Republicans have voted to eliminate between 4 and 5 million jobs, with some economists calling their estimates “conservative.” Including proposed legislation that has not yet passed, House Republicans have attempted to eliminate up to 6.7 million jobs.

Michele Bachmann claimed John Quincy Adams was a founding father. Except John Quincy Adams was a boy during the revolution. Instead of admitting she got it wrong, Bachmann doubles down and claims that as a child, Adams was “actively involved” in the revolution.

But she’s not a flake. Right.

Good speech from Sen. Sanders discussing how our budget negotiations must not screw over the middle and lower class in favor of the uber-rich. It’s time to draw a line in the sand, or we’re screwed.

Today, David Frum is applauding in favor of gay marriage.

But through the fog of time, we remember that it was Frum as Bush speechwriter who wrote about the “axis of evil” (and was reportedly let go after his wife bragged about it).

And in March of 2003 when the Iraq war was in its infancy, he wrote:

War is a grim thing. But it is sometimes a necessary thing — and very often a clarifying thing. We have learned much in the opening hours of this war. We will learn more in the days ahead. When the Iraqi archives fall into Allied hands, we will learn about the complex structure of international terrorism over the past three decades. We may learn something too about the flow of money from Iraq into France and Germany — not only to French and German corporations, but very possibly to individuals, including senior political figures.

We will learn the full horror of what went on inside Iraq. The perfunctory condemnations of Saddam we hear from so many opponents of the war will suddenly look utterly inadequate in comparison to the nightmare cruelty of Saddam’s regime. Perhaps — is this too much to hope for? — the Arab intellectuals who kept silent about Saddam’s cruelty will be shamed out of nationalist pride into moral awakening; a moral awakening that will at last discredit terrorism and open the way to peace with Israel.

Finally, we will all learn something about ourselves and our political leaders. The months since 9/11 have been a moral test. The Bush administration has passed with flying colours. Its opponents have failed. Politics can be a long, slow business. But in the end, moral failure will be held to account — even in Canada.

So guys who enable bloodthirsty warmongering that leads to the deaths of thousands of Americans don’t get a pat on the back, no matter how their new position may be the right one.

You don’t say. No, really.

In the video below, Bachmann compares her spirit to that of John Wayne, who she says is from Waterloo, IA. Except the John Wayne from Waterloo is not the legendary actor but instead the notorious serial killer. Whoops. (via)

OIL INDUSTRY INFILTRATES LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Some of America’s worst polluters are in the middle of a scheme to control your state and local government. The oil industry, currently enjoying fat profits a year after the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, has put in place groups to push its agenda in states without the knowledge of local citizens.

REPORT: 56.2 MPG TO BE NEW US FUEL STANDARD