Day: July 19, 2011

Publisher Embargoes Galleys of McGinnis Book on Palin Due to ‘Explosive Content’

Jon Ponder

Coming in September
Coming in September
From Joe McGinnis, author of “The Rogue”:

Crown Publishing, currently the strongest division of Random House, Inc., has made yet another decision with which I agree.

They have decided not to send out pre-publication galleys of THE ROGUE to review outlets and mass media.

They’ve printed only seventy-five galleys and are keeping them locked in a safe in their offices in New York.

I myself have received only one copy.

A very few magazine editors and executive producers of national TV shows will be shown a redacted version, but only after they sign stringent, legally binding, non-disclosure agreements.

Very seldom does a publisher decide to embargo a book in this fashion.

[…]

Republicans Succeeding in Fight to Kill New Consumer Protections from Banking, Credit Abuse

Jon Ponder

It has almost gone without notice that Republicans in Congress, at the behest of their corporate masters, are fighting a system of consumer protections from abusive practices by credit-card companies, banks, mortgage lenders and other financial institutions.

“And here we stand a year later with the minority, the side that lost, saying, well, I don’t like how that came out. And so, I think I have the capacity to stick a stick in the spokes, unless, the majority will do what the minority wants it to. You know, that’s not how democracy works, and it’s not how this agency works. It’s just wrong.”
– Elizabeth Warren

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which will oversee the protections, was created by Congress and written into law last year. But since then, Republicans have been demanding a do-over in order to rewrite the new law to make it more palatable to their sponsors in the financial industry.

They are using the same hostage-taking, extortion-like tactics to kill these consumer protections as they have been in the budget and deficit-ceiling debates. In this instance, they are putting holds on confirmation of Pres. Obama’s nominees to head the CFPB.

And they are succeeding. They have refused to confirm Elizabeth Warren as head of the agency. Warren, the Harvard professor who was appointed by the Senate to recommend reforms after the financial crash in 2008 and subsequently by the president to create the new agency, is one of the good guys in Washington. What Repubicans have done to her is a travesty.

In an interview on CNN yesterday, Wolf Blitzer asked Warren about the political attacks on her and the consumer protection agency by Republicans:

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Florida Gov. Scott Can’t Move Poll Numbers

Trish

27%

Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s approval rating, according to a new poll from the conservative Sunshine State News (SSN). The study was conducted July 5 – 7, two months after a Qunnipiac University poll gave Scott a 29% approval rating and one month after a liberal Public Policy Polling survey showed a 33% approval rate. The three polls produced disapproval numbers from 57% to 59%. The SSN study indicates that an unprecedented public relations assault by the Republican Party of Florida — which included robocalls, a video of the governor’s mother expressing admiration for her son, and prepared letters to the editor that party faithful had only to sign their names to and submit — was ineffective.

Good News for Dems’ Hopes for Holding Senate in 2012 – NRSC Has Hired Carly Fiorina

Jon Ponder

Fiorina, unaware that she was sitting in front of a live camera, just seconds before she made catty remarks about Sen. Boxer's hair
Fiorina, unaware that she was sitting in front of a live camera, just seconds before she made catty remarks about Sen. Boxer’s hair
How disastrous was Carly Fiorina’s race last year to unseat California Sen. Barbara Boxer? In a GOP wave year, Fiorina lost to one of the most liberal members of the Senate by over 1 million votes. In a campaign year in which most Democratic candidates shied away from being associated with Pres. Obama, Boxer felt perfectly comfortable closing her campaign with a final ad showing her on stage hugging the president in front of a packed auditorium filled with cheering voters.

It’s no surprise that Fiorina — whom, it’s fair to say, California voters grew to like less and less as they got to know her — has opted not to run against Sen. Dianne Feinstein next year. (So has eMeg Whitman, who ran a higher profile, much more expensive — she spent over $100 million of her own money — and even more disastrous campaign for governor against Jerry Brown last year.)

What is surprising is that, despite the fact that Republican chances for winning control of the Senate next year could not be stronger — more Democrats than Republicans are up for reelection, for one thing — Republicans have recruited Fiorina to do high-level fundraising for their national committee.

Via Calbuzz:

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No Surprise: Republican Voters Believe GOP Propaganda on Debt Ceiling

Jon Ponder

Pew Research Center:

By a 53 percent to 30 percent margin, most Republicans say that it will not be a major problem if the debt ceiling is not raised by Aug. 2. The balance of opinion is the reverse among Democrats: 56 percent say it is absolutely essential to meet that deadline to avoid an economic crisis, 28 percent say it is not. Independents are more divided, though a slim 43 percent plurality say the country can go past Aug. 2 without major economic problems, while 32 percent say it is essential to raise the debt limit by this date.

…Tea Party Republicans are by far the most unconvinced about the potential fallout from going past the Aug. 2 deadline. Fully 65 percent of Republicans and Republican leaning independents who agree with the Tea Party see no major problems if this occurs, compared with 45 percent of Republicans and Republican leaners who do not agree with the Tea Party.

Here’s a metric that shows how effective Fox and other GOP propaganda mills are at spinning Republican voters:

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The Republican Party Is to Blame for the Deficit

Jon Ponder

Peter Beinart:

George W. Bush and his congressional allies pushed through tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 that, according to the Congressional Budget Office, added more than $2 trillion to the deficit over 10 years. In 2002, when National Economic Council director Lawrence Lindsey suggested the Iraq War might cost $100 billion to $200 billion, he was rebuked by Office of Management and Budget director Mitch Daniels and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and then fired. According to the CBO, the war has now cost more than $1 trillion.

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