Category: Congress

So, Where is Reid on Telco Immunity?

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Like many things with Harry Reid, it’s kind of confusing. He is a wheels within wheels kind of guy.

Reid is co-sponsoring cosponsoring the amendment to strip telco immunity, but as this is sure to be filibustered, it not going to happen.

He also says that he’s going to vote against the whole bill.

So at least nominally, Reid is on the side of Dodd, Feingold, Wyden and Boxer.

I think that all this is far less noble than one might imagine. I agree with Emptywheel’s analysis, that his objections are less about the merits of the bill than they are about holding back any approval until the Housing Bill and Iraq Supplemental, which has, “Webb’s GI bill and an extension to unemployment benefits” have passed and have been signed into law.

Bizarro World: I Agree With Ramesh Ponnuru

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Writing in The Corner, he notes that while Time Magazine reporter Massimo Calabresi suggests that the FISA update drew attacks from both sides, Mr. Ponnure notes that he hadn’t, “heard much unhappiness being expressed from righties,” and that, “If that’s what they [Democrats] want to tell themselves, fine. It sure looks like they got rolled.”

Ponnuru is completely correct. The right has been unable to contain their glee over this abomination, and Mr. Calabresi is either very stupid, or allowed Steny Hoyer to hypnotize him.*

*Just in case the mouth breathers from The Corner come over, let me be clear, the hypnosis bit is a joke…

FHA Still Backing Zero Money Down Home Loans

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It’s called the DAP, Down-payment Assistance Program, and it allows buyers to purchase a home with no down payment, even though FHA regulations require 3% down.

The offers — including “100% financing” — are made possible due to down-payment assistance programs run by nonprofit organizations. These programs are funded largely by home builders and also by private homeowners desperate to sell. The seller-funded groups provide enough down-payment money to buyers that they can qualify for a mortgage backed by the Federal Housing Administration, which requires at least a 3% down payment.

Basically, realtors and builders set up non-profits, and the home seller contributes to the non-profit to cover closing costs and down payments, which are made as grants to the buyers.

Of course, that money from the seller gets tacked onto the selling price. So if a condo were to sell for $100K, they would sell it for $110K, with 7K covering closing costs, and 3K covering the down payment required by the FHA.

Net effect: the buyer has no skin in the game.

They now account for 34% of downpayments on FHA loans.

Thankfully, the current FHA overhaul in Congress eliminates this…for a while, at least.

In any case, how about letting the pictures do the talking:


An Update on Regina Thomas (GA-12)

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I just wanted to note that about a week ago, the Regina Thomas act blue page was under $5,000, and now she is at $35,713.00 $36,039.00. The campaign web page is here.

This is because the incumbent in the district, Bush Blue Dog John Barrow, is one of the major proponents of the FISA capitulation, and he has ardently advocated for telco immunity, and taken lots of telco money to boot.

Georgia’s 12th district has its primary on July 15. John Barrow is white in a district where 70% of the primary voters are black, and State Senator Regina Thomas is black, so knocking him off in the primary is possible, though it won’t be easy.

Barrow currently has $1,311,478 cash on hand, 55% of it from PACS, so the amount that Thomas has may not be enough.

The good news is that Barack Obama’s endorsement of Barrow has increased interest in Thomas:

In an effort to control my enthusiasm, I asked Thomas about the depressing news that Barack Obama endorsed Barrow and recorded a radio ad, which caused outrage this week on many blogs. Thomas would have none of it. “That’s the best thing that happened to me!” she countered. “People are angry about this! Here’s a man who has not served his district, and Obama is messing in our local businesss. I’m getting emails from Illinois, Pennsylvania, even Taiwan! A man in his 80’s with a small retirement was sending a check to Obama each month, and now he’s sending it to me. The response is incredible,” she said.

I asked if there were any polls. “We haven’t had the money for a poll, but Barrow took a poll and he didn’t like the results, because he got Obama to make the ad. He refuses to show up for debates, and is sending surrogates who look like me. But people aren’t fooled, they see right through it. Why is he afraid to debate me?” she asked.

(emphasis mine)

Things seem to be trending her way, and there are still 3 weeks to the primary, so check her out.

Dems To Try to Block Iraq No Bid Oil Contracts

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They are threatening to, “cut off financing for as-yet-unspecified programs in Iraq that are not directly in support of U.S. troops,” but in the end, they will once again collapse like a bunch of overcooked broccoli to George W. “@9% Approval” Bush.

Even though it is clear that these deals would “deepen political tensions in Iraq and put our service members in even greater danger,” when push comes to shove, I expect more capitulation from the Dems.

The Republican Party in Staten Island is Having a VERY Bad Year

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When I heard the news that Francis H. Powers, Republican candidate for Congress in Staten Island had died was :

My condolences to his family, but the sequence of events was:

  • The incumbent was busted driving drunk to his mistress, who bore him a daughter, and decided not to run for reelection.
  • When Francis H. Powers (Frank), was chosen as the Republican candidate, his son Francis M. Powers (Fran) decided to run for election against him, making Frank the but of the late night talk shows.
  • And now Frank Powers is dead, and Republicans cannot find anyone else interested in running.

This has gone from challenge to fiasco.

Barack Obama Sells Us All Out

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And so did Pelosi, Hoyer, Emmanuel, and all the rest of them.It does not matter if you are a Democrat, or a Republican, black, white, or polka dotted. He sold you out, he sole me out, he sold out George Washington, and Ben Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton, and Abraham Lincoln.

They sold out every last one of us.

Glenn Greenwald nails it when he says that, “Telling Americans that we have to give up basic constitutional rights — and allow rampant lawbreaking — if we want to save ourselves from “the grave threats we face” sounds awfully familiar. He says he will work to remove amnesty from the bill, but once that fails, will vote for the “compromise.” Obama has obviously calculated that sacrificing the rule of law and the Fourth Amendment is a worthwhile price to pay to bolster his standing a tiny bit in a couple of swing states. The full Obama statement is here.”

What Glenn Greenwald does not note, and I will, is that the behavior of this administration shows that this is about their spying on political opponents, not about security, because that is the only thing that would have them freaking out like this, because it’s the only thing that would send them to jail.

To be completely fair, he does say in his statement that he will, “work in the Senate to remove this provision so that we can seek full accountability for past offenses,”, but as Digby says, this translates to, “maybe show up to vote on some amendment that will surely be struck down and then whimper away.”

Atrios gives him a wanker of the day award.

I have post dated this so that it will show at the top of the blog for the next few days.

Senate Polling Numbers

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In Maine, we have Susan Collins(R) fading, she is now leading Tom Allen(D) by 49%-42%, but any incumbent below 50% is in trouble, and not so long ago it was something like 52-39.

The one that surprises me though are the numbers for Mississippi, where the kinda-sorta incumbent* Roger Wicker(R) is behind Ronnie Musgrove(D) 46%-47%.

I would not expect that in Mississippi.

*Wicker has been in the Senate for only a few months, he was appointed to replace Lott when he retired to become a lobbyist .

Steny’s Telco Deal: Time for Obama to Step Up and Stop It

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There is a deal for telco immunity going that Steny Hoyer is shepherding through congress, and as American Civil Liberties Union says, it stinks.

The court review consists of only verifying that the telcos got a letter from Bush and His Evil Minions™. Glenn Greenwald has the skinny on what is going on, and it’s Hoyer who is at the center of passing a law that will cover up for the Bush’s illegal wire tapping (and probably spying on political opponents).

If you want to do something, check out the Blue America PAC vs Retroactive Immunity, which has raised about $180K in the past 24 hours to target someone.

This betrayal goes beyond party politics, so if you live in Hoyer’s district, MD-5, don’t vote for him in the general election.

One bit of bright news in all this is that the New York Times came out against the Telco immunity deal today. What’s more they called for Obama to do something more than just vote against it.

Word up on that. Obama is now the de facto leader of the Democratic party, and he needs to make it clear that this deal is not good for the country.

[Update] I just checked Greewald’s latest, and it now appears that Hoyer is trying to pretend that he hasn’t been working for this for months, but instead it’s all those Bush Blue Dogs that are making him do it.

Bull sh$@!

FWIW, we now know that the targets of the campaign, and the nearly two hundred thousand dollars raised for it, will be Steny Hoyer, Chris Carney, and John Barrow, the latter two having been the most prominent of the Vichy Democrats on this issue.

Note that the primary for Barrow is not until July, and he has an opponent with a lot more progressive cred, Regina Thomas, who I have added to my act blue page so money spent against him could defeat him in July.

No surprise, all of them are big recipients of telco largess by way of campaign contributions.

Your best place for updates is Glenn Greenwald’s blog.

Senate Polling

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  • SurveyUSA: Mitch McConnell (R-KY) 50%; Bruce Lunsford (D-MN) 46%: I’m surprised that it’s this close now. McConnell is still at the magic 50% number, but he’s the minority leader of the Senate.
  • Rasmussen Reports™: Ted Stephens (R-AK) 46%; Mark Begich (D-AK) 44%: Stevens is in real trouble. One of the truisms of politics are that undecideds break against the incumbent by at least 2:1.
  • SurveyUSA: Norm Coleman (R-MN) 52%; Al Franken (D-MN), if Jesse Ventura enters the race as an independent, it becomes (R)41%-(D)31%-(I)23%: This as me bumming. I hate that smarmy bastard Coleman. One hopes that the race will become more about Norm Coleman, and less about Al Franken.
  • Rasmussen Reports™: Mark Warner (D-VA) 60%; Jim Gilmore (R-VA) 33%: Virginia will have two Democratic Senators.
  • Rasmussen Reports™: Pat Roberts (R-KS) 48%; Jim Slattery (D-KS) 39%: The fact that the incumbent Republican in Kansas is below 50% is simply stunning. I think that this is unlikely Dem pickup, but the idea that a Democrat has a non-insane shot at this, Roberts is below 50%, is stunning.

Updates on Various Races

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Rasmussen Reports™: has Norm Coleman at 48% and Al Franken 45%, and it is not good for an incumbent to be below 50%. This will be winnable, even with the phony scandals drummed up by Coleman’s bully boys.

The race for Fossella’s seat in Staten Island is a tossup, though it has historically been a fairly solid Republican district.

Rasmussen Reports™ has Liddy Dole with a 14-Point Lead Over Kay Hagan, 53%-39%. The last poll had Hagan up by 1 point, immediately after she won the primary, but Dole has been running ads, and Hagan has not.