The Basilica di Santa Maria del-Fiore in Florence, Italy. From National Geographic.For those of you who did not see the President's brief speech last night, here it is.
Last night, in response to Obama's call for people to contact their congressmen and women, Congress's server crashed. For those of you in congressional districts represented by Republicans, NOW is the time to call, write, or e-mail that person and to tell them how you want them to proceed on the debt ceiling negotiations. It could be that all you need to say is 'I expect you to compromise'. While I think it is appropriate to call your rep if he/she is a Democrat too, it is the Republicans who need to hear from voters who are not right-wing extremists right now. In the Pittsburgh area, that means Rep. Tim Murphy in the South Hills. If you are from the South Hills, you need to act TODAY! It means if you are from up north of the city from Butler to Erie, you need contact Mike Kelly -- and you need to act TODAY. Here is the information with links:
Rep. Tim Murphy
Phone: (202) 225-2301
Fax: (202) 225-1844
322 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Rep. Mike Kelly (R)
515 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-5406
Fax: (202) 225-3103
If you are from somewhere else in the country and are represented by a Republican, you also need to act. You can go HERE to locate the contact information on your representative. For many of you, I already know you may be resigned and cynical about the process right now - either because Obama has not been as steadfast as you would have liked or because of the deep dysfunctionality on display. But, make no mistake, the deeper dysfunction will be if you as a voter become so resigned that you turn away right now when so much is at stake and do nothing!
UP-FRONT DEBT CEILING NUGGET!!
For those looking for some trenchant observations about last night's speeches, what was most telling actually came before Obama or Boehner walked before the cameras:
Conservatives Denounce Boehner Plan from The Hill
"The chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee wasted little time announcing his opposition to the House GOP leadership's two-step plan to raise the debt ceiling."
IN-credible!! How could they have let him go out there and press his "plan" when his own caucus wasn't aligned with it -- and he had no Democratic support!? WTF!? Oh, but he did fully brief Rush Limbaugh on the plan! I guess he thought that should suffice.
Here's more:
Tea Party Coalition Rejects Boehner's Debt Proposal (UPDATE) from the Huffington Post
"A coalition of Tea Party chapters and conservative lawmakers on Monday rejected the debt proposal put forward by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), despite his efforts to sweeten the deal with provisions favored by his conservative base."
Ah -- I see. Boehner probably couldn't get through to his caucus because Tea Party lawmakers are too busy taking Erik Erikson's temperature over at redstate.com:
"In the past 48 hours I have had call after call after call from members of the United States Congress. They’ve read what I’ve written. They agree. But they feel the hour is short and the end is nigh. So some are calling looking for alternatives. Some are calling looking for energy. Many are calling looking for absolution. And so I address them and put it here so you can see my advice. I can give no absolution for what you may be about to do."
Norway Shooting: Glenn Beck Compares Dead Teenagers to Hitler Youth from the Daily Telegraph [of the UK]
"Glenn Beck, the leading Right-wing American broadcaster, has prompted outrage after comparing the teenage victims of the Utoya Island massacre to the Hitler Youth."
This blog rarely traffics in the latest inane mouthngs of Beck/Limbaugh/Palin et al. But THIS ONE was just so ... exceptional! It is PRECISELY the kind of thing the shooter would have said to justify what he did!!
Ross Douthat at the NY Times says pretty much the same thing here:
A Right-Wing Monster (Ross Douthat) from the New York Times
"Conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic have an obligation to acknowledge that Anders Behring Breivik is a distinctively right-wing kind of monster. But they also have an obligation to the realities that this monster’s terrible atrocity threatens to obscure."
Obama Holds the Cards -- If He Will Play Them Well (Robert Kutttner) from the Huffington Post
"... The President of the United States will be revealed to be holding more of the cards -- if he has the nerve to start playing his hand well (for a change."
Among House Republican Freshmen, Debt-Ceiling Uncertainty Reigns (Filicia Sonmez) from the Washington Post
"The waning hours of the debt-ceiling debate have generated a proliferation of new proposals to solve the crisis. But for many of the House freshman at the heart of the GOP opposition to a deal with President Obama, all theses ideas amount to little more than displays of Washington treachery."
This is NOT uncertainty -- it is paranoia. And it's why they can't bring themselves to anything resembling a "yes."
GOP Stumbles Over Surprise Dem Debt Limit Offer (Brian Beutler) from Talking Points Memo
"Republicans were not expecting to wake up to headlines noting that Reid's offering more immediate cuts than House Speaker John Boehner's proposing. Second, because about a trillion of those dollars comes from the expected wind down of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan -- a source of savings Republicans have recently opposed but, oops, voted for in the House GOP budget."
Sounds like a pretty savvy move on Reid's part. Rather than getting tax increases, liberals will take MAJOR defense spending cuts, cuts the GOP has already endorsed! What next? The problem is Reid and the Senate don't have time to put together hard legislation to cause this.
Tension Runs High at WI Town Hall Meeting from the White Fish Bay Patch Newsletter
"Roughly 120 people packed Whitefish Bay Village Hall Sunday night, but recall candidates Sen. Alberta Darling and Rep. Sandy Pasch were not among them."
For the latest on what's happening in WI:
Wisconsin Recall Elections 2011: News & Updates From The Badger State from the Huffington Post
"In the coming weeks, recall elections will take place in nine of Wisconsin's state Senate districts. Six Democratic challengers will run to oust Republican incumbents from their seats, while three GOP hopefuls will compete to remove Democratic lawmakers from office."
Palin Documentary Headed for Pay-Per-View as Ticket Sales Plummet from Reuters News Service
"With its Sarah Palin documentary "The Undefeated" increasing its playdates by 40 percent this weekend, only to watch box office revenue decline by more than 63 percent, distributor Arc Entertainment announced Sunday that the film will soon be available on pay per view."
Surprise! Surprise!
REAL NEWSPAPER NUGGET!!
The Kingdom and the Paywall (Seth Mnookin) from New York Magazine
"Some people thought that on Arthur Sulzberger Jr.’s watch, the New York Times could actually become extinct. They might need to issue a correction."
Hooray for the New York Times!!
BIG CAT NUGGET!!
A Forbidding Kingdom of Snow Leopards from the New York Times
"Using cannily placed motion-sensitive camera traps, scientists have amassed a wealth of snow leopard images, allowing them to estimate population numbers, identify individuals and track migrations. They’ve also gained a glimpse of the cat’s daily schedule."
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