May 8, 2015

email from Elizabeth Warren: I agree with Hillary Clinton

Don,

I have serious concerns about ISDS – a policy in the new TPP trade agreement that would let foreign companies challenge American laws outside of American courts.

I’ll give you a recent example of how it works: A big mining company wanted to do some blasting off the coast of Nova Scotia. The Canadian government refused to provide permits because it thought the blasting would harm the local environment and scare off fish that local fishermen needed to make a living.

Thanks to an ISDS provision in a past trade agreement, that mining company didn’t have to go to a Canadian court to challenge the permit decision – they went right to a special ISDS panel of corporate lawyers. Last month, the international panel ruled in favor of the mining company, and the decision cannot be challenged in Canadian courts.

Now the Canadian taxpayers may be on the hook for up to $300 million in “damages” to the mining company – all because their government had the gall to stand up for its environment and the economic livelihood of its local fishermen. And the next time a foreign company wants a blasting permit, what will the Canadian government do?

ISDS isn’t a one-time, hypothetical problem – we’ve seen it in past trade agreements. Just in the past few years:

A French company sued Egypt after Egypt raised its minimum wage.

*A Swedish company sued Germany because Germany wanted to phase out nuclear power for safety reasons.

*A Dutch company sued the Czech Republic because the Czech Republic didn't bail out a bank that the Dutch company partially owned.

*Philip Morris is using ISDS right now to try to stop countries like Australia and Uruguay from implementing new rules that are intended to cut smoking rates – because the new laws might eat into the tobacco giant’s profits.

The Obama Administration has said that they have fixed all the problems, and nothing like that will happen here. They just won’t show you how.

Let's send a loud message to our trade officials: No vote on a fast-track for trade agreements until the American people can see what’s in this TPP deal – ISDS and everything else. Sign the petition right now.

I’m not the only one worried about ISDS. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote in her book last year:

"We should avoid some of the provisions sought by business interests, including our own, like giving them or their investors the power to sue foreign governments to weaken their environmental and public health rules, as Philip Morris is already trying to do in Australia. The United States should be advocating a level and fair playing field, not special favors."

In March, more than a hundred law professors from all around the country wrote a letter about their concerns about ISDS. And five of the country’s top legal and economic experts – Joseph Stiglitz, Larry Tribe, Judith Resnik, Cruz Reynoso, and H. Lee Sarokin – all agree:

"ISDS weakens the rule of law by removing the procedural protections of the legal system and using a system of adjudication with limited accountability and review. It is antithetical to the fair, public, and effective legal system that all Americans expect and deserve. Proponents of ISDS have failed to explain why our legal system is inadequate to the task. For the reasons cited above, we urge you to uphold the best ideals of our legal system and ensure ISDS is excluded from upcoming trade agreements."

This isn't a partisan issue. I don’t often agree with the conservative Cato Institute, and I suspect they don’t often agree with me. But the head of Cato’s trade policy program said:

&quot ISDS) raises serious questions about democratic accountability, sovereignty, checks and balances, and the separation of power... Sen. Warren’s perspective on ISDS is one that libertarians and other free market advocates should share."

The Obama Administration says you have nothing to worry about – to trust them that nothing could possibly go wrong. But they won’t release the text of the TPP agreement to the public for you to see it for yourself.

Frankly, "just trust us" isn’t good enough – not for a trade deal that multinational corporations have been working on for years while the public has been kept in the dark.

Tens of thousands of people have already signed our petition: No vote to fast-track trade agreements until the American people can see what’s in this TPP deal – including ISDS. Please sign the petition now.

Thank you for being a part of this,

Elizabeth

May 8, 2015

Marco Rubio’s Hispanic debacle: How Hillary Clinton just made life hell for the GOP’s “transformatio

Marco Rubio’s Hispanic debacle: How Hillary Clinton just made life hell for the GOP’s “transformational” candidate

This is the savvy contender Democrats should fear? Please

SIMON MALOY

Hillary Clinton went big on immigration this week. Speaking in Nevada, the Democratic candidate for president laid out a vision for immigration reform that embraces and goes beyond what President Obama has managed to accomplish via executive action. She also used the opportunity to swipe at the Republicans in the 2016 mix, calling them out for opposing efforts to pass immigration legislation and offering chintzy alternatives to real reform. “Make no mistake,” she said, “today not a single Republican candidate, announced or potential, is clearly and consistently supporting a path to citizenship. Not one. When they talk about ‘legal status,’ that’s code for ‘second-class status.’”

Clinton’s message came as something of a welcome surprise to immigration activists and liberal voters who remembered the Hillary Clinton of 2007 who hemmed, hawed, and dodged her way around issues of undocumented immigration. She also seems to have tripped up a few of the same Republicans candidates she criticized. The Washington Post noted the “relatively subdued” reaction to Clinton’s immigration comments from Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush, both of whom are viewed as more “moderate” on immigration issues and both of whom have an eye on eating into the Democrats’ advantage with Latino voters. Other potential candidates were not so taciturn: Scott Walker lashed out at Clinton for her “full embrace of amnesty” and for putting herself “above the law,” while Lindsey Graham called her speech “a sign of her weakness.”

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/05/08/marco_rubios_hispanic_debacle_how_hillary_clinton_just_made_life_hell_for_the_gops_transformational_candidate/

May 8, 2015

TX GOP'er: Rape victims shouldn’t receive abortion coverage because their claims aren’t “measurable"

Texas Republican: Rape victims shouldn’t receive abortion coverage because their claims aren’t “measurable”

Sen. Donna Campbell moved to require women to report incest and rape to police to receive insurance coverage

JENNY KUTNER

Texas Republican State Sen. Donna Campbell fought an amendment on Wednesday that would allow exceptions for rape and incest victims from a measure that otherwise prohibits all insurance coverage for abortion. Instead, the GOP lawmaker countered the proposal with her own, which would require victims to report their assaults to police in order to receive exemptions, because otherwise the state might be “enabling” perpetrators.

“I’m concerned that we may be unintentionally providing cover for perpetrators of crimes,” Campbell said. She was then challenged by Democrat Kirk Watson, who pressed her to consider the real-life implications of the law and her amendment.

“Would you agree with me that there are instances where a woman could be raped, and because she fears for her life otherwise, would not want to report that to law enforcement officials?” Watson asked. “Can you conceive of that situation?”

Campbell agreed, but continued by identifying the measure as as strictly “an insurance bill.” “Instead of encouraging that hypothetical situation from moving into protection for her by law enforcement, we’re saying, let’s cover that violation with an insurance payment,” she said. “When she gets the abortion…are we empowering the perpetrator, because now out of a coercion…she gets an abortion, and it’s paid for by an insurance company — and then it may happen to her again?”

“I do agree that when it’s reported, when it’s something that’s measurable within the box — that when it’s reported to law enforcement authorities — then we have something measurable, that insurance companies like to have specific codes, that they then have something that they can then hang their hat on,” Campbell added.

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/05/07/texas_republican_rape_victims_shouldnt_receive_abortion_coverage_because_their_claims_arent_measurable/

May 8, 2015

Too bad, Mike Huckabee — Americans would rather have a gay president than a Christian evangelical

The WSJ/NBC News poll surveyed 1,000 adults

JOANNA ROTHKOPF

A new survey conducted by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News has found that more Americans would be comfortable with a gay or lesbian president (about 61 percent of respondents) than they would with an evangelical Christian president (only 52 percent).

Furthermore, only 37 percent said they would be uncomfortable with a gay or lesbian person in the highest office in the country, while 44 percent said they would be hesitant about an evangelical Christian running for president.

Vox’s German Lopez reports:

This is an 18-point improvement for the gay or lesbian candidate: in 2006, 43 percent of Americans said they’d support a gay or lesbian person running for president. But the numbers for evangelical Christians have been roughly the same for years, rising from 41 percent since 2006 but hovering around 50 percent since 2008, according to previous polls from the Wall Street Journal and NBC News.

-snip-

http://www.salon.com/2015/05/07/too_bad_mike_huckabee_americans_would_rather_have_a_gay_president_than_a_christian_evangelical/

May 8, 2015

Jeb Bush’s terrifying W. strategy: How he’s sucking up to extremist billionaires—with the help of th

Jeb Bush’s terrifying W. strategy: How he’s sucking up to extremist billionaires—with the help of the worst president ever

Jeb recently said he goes to his brother for Israel advice. That should scare you for a billion different reasons

HEATHER DIGBY PARTON

With these thirteen simple words GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush struck terror into the entire world yesterday. He said,

“If you want to know who I listen to for advice, it’s him.”

To whom was he referring? As hard as it is to believe, he was talking about his brother, George W. Bush.

Now it’s true that the question referred to Israel and the Middle East specifically, but it doesn’t really matter. There isn’t any area of policy or interest in which it would be smart to make such an admission. After all, it was during George W. Bush’s tenure that we had the nation’s most catastrophic terrorist attack, that we made the most notorious foreign policy blunder in American history, and that we suffered the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression. Indeed, when you look at it that way, you have to give Jeb points for chutzpah, for daring to run at all. It’s only been 7 years since his brother left office with a 34 percent approval rating — which was actually quite an improvement from where he’d been mired for his final year in office. But for Jeb to actually suggest that he would listen to his brother or ask him for advice seems rather reckless.

It must be noted that Bush II’s ratings improved substantially once he retired from public view and has limited his appearances to self-portraits of himself in the tub, and Instagrams of his cute grandkids. But even after presenting himself for seven years as the nation’s slightly dotty old uncle who only shows up for Thanksgiving and Christmas, he is still loathed by half the people in the country. And one assumes that when they are reminded of his actual presidency, many of them will go back to the negative column. Those weren’t good times.

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/05/08/jeb_bushs_terrifying_w_strategy_how_hes_sucking_up_to_extremist_billionaires%E2%80%94with_the_help_of_the_worst_president_ever/

May 8, 2015

Warmongers get schooled: How GOP hawks lost their chance to scuttle an Iran deal

The Iran review bill is flying through Congress, but House Dems are making their pro-deal stance clear

JIM NEWELL

The Senate finally passed the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act yesterday by a margin of 98-1. The process of getting it to the finish line was not as easy as that vote count suggests.

The amendment process was disrupted by some showmanship from Sens. Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton, whose stunt to force votes on their poison pill amendments pulled the curtain early on the debate process. (It provided a nice splash page for Rubio’s campaign website, though. Rubio’s job in the Senate is now largely confined to trolling his colleagues for splash page material.) Then Sen. David Vitter, who’s aiming to ride his similarly useless, stunt-driven Senate record to a stint in the Louisiana governor’s mansion, held up the process because he didn’t get a vote on his oh-so-vital pwecious amendment. Eventually everyone relented and voted for the bill, except for Tom Cotton, whom neoconservatives will surely cheer for this latest episode of Churchillian resistance.

The bill now heads over to the House, where some conservatives will probably want to attach colorful amendments, and John Boehner, like Mitch McConnell, will have to shut them out to avoid resurrecting the White House veto threat. Should it escape that process untarnished, it will likely receive an overwhelming majority there and then President Obama will sign it into law.

And if the administration, in concert with fellow P5+1 negotiators, finishes off a final agreement with the Iranians that resembles the preliminary framework released in early April, it will almost certainly go into effect without congressional resistance.

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/05/08/warmongers_get_schooled_how_gop_hawks_lost_their_chance_to_scuttle_an_iran_deal/

May 8, 2015

Juan Williams: Pam Geller is no better than your average self-promoting pyromaniac

The Fox pundit says Gellar is intentionally provoking violence

SCOTT ERIC KAUFMAN

On “Hannity” last night, Juan Williams unloaded on anti-Muslim activist Pam Geller, comparing her to a pyromaniac who walks before a judge and insists she only burns down buildings to see how quickly the fire department responds.

Geller sat stone-faced as Williams leveled this accusation, preferring to let Sean Hannity speak in her defense — and speak he did. “You’re taking the ‘she dressed provocatively, therefore she put herself in the position (to be raped) position,” he said. “You’re blaming the victim of an attempted assassination!”

“No, I’m not,” Williams replied, explaining that unlike editorial cartoonist Molly Norris and author Salman Rushdie — who were producing actual works of art that offended radical Muslims — Geller was “intentionally trying to provoke this (violent) reaction” by hosting an amateur contest with no greater purpose than to offend.

“Let me just answer,” Geller told Hannity. “Incendiary? Molly Norris was having a ‘Draw Muhammad contest’ too.”

“But she was a political cartoonist,” Williams interjected.

more + video
http://www.salon.com/2015/05/08/juan_williams_pam_geller_is_no_better_than_your_average_self_promoting_pyromaniac/

May 8, 2015

One of Jeb Bush’s top advisers on Israel: George W. Bush

After spending months distancing himself from his family’s political legacy, Jeb Bush surprised a group of Manhattan financiers this week by naming his brother, former president George W. Bush, as his most influential counselor on U.S.-Israel policy.

“If you want to know who I listen to for advice, it’s him,” Bush said Tuesday, speaking to a crowd of high-powered investors at the Metropolitan Club, according to four people present. The Republicans in the room spoke on the condition of anonymity to divulge information about the private meeting.

The remark came as part of an answer to a question about Bush’s political aides and their policy views, and whether he relies on the guidance of former secretary of state James Baker, guests said. Baker’s role in Bush’s orbit has been the source of consternation for some major GOP donors, who were upset that the 85-year-old ex-diplomat spoke to a left- leaning Israeli advocacy group in March.

Jeb Bush said that Baker is not one of his close advisers and that he leans on his brother for insights when it comes to Israel and the Middle East.

Embracing George W. Bush as a foreign-policy confidant is a risky and unexpected move for the former Florida governor as he readies for a likely presidential bid. While the former president’s approval ratings have improved since he left office in 2009, his foreign-policy legacy — particularly the long war in Iraq — remains deeply unpopular. He has also become anathema to some conservative activists for presiding over an increase in the federal debt, among other policies.

more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/one-of-jeb-bushs-top-advisers-on-israel-george-w-bush/2015/05/07/920fec8e-f4da-11e4-bcc4-e8141e5eb0c9_story.html

May 8, 2015

LGBT Is the Real Moral Majority - By Michael Tomasky

Michael Tomasky

Evangelicals could learn to ape the success of their ideological opponents, notably the LGBT community. But when you think your orders come from God, evolution can be tough.

So now that Mike Huckabee has thrown in, we have three or arguably four Republican candidates elbowing one another to win the collective heart of the evangelical right. In addition to Huck, there’s Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and maybe Rand Paul, whose links to the constituency are more tenuous but who clearly is in there pitching.

What they all understand, of course, is that the evangelical presence looms large in the Iowa caucuses, and it’s quite possible that only one of them is going to get out of the state alive. So by that measure, the Christian right still wields considerable political power in this country. But outside the realm of the Republican presidential primary process—and maybe soon within it—the religious right is losing wattage fast, and I can report to you happily that the movement has only itself to blame.

Here’s a fascinating little politico-cultural data point that may have blown past you this week and would have me were it not for Rod Dreher at The American Conservative: A new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll shows that more Americans say they feel enthusiastic about or comfortable with an openly gay or lesbian presidential candidate than an openly evangelical Christian one. Yep. Three out of five, or 61 percent, said they’d welcome a gay candidate, while just 52 percent would say the same of an evangelical.

The comparison is instructive, because if you contrast these two movements and their relative political success in recent years, you see a very clear distinction that should (and does) make Republicans nervous. You see why the LGBT movement is winning and why religious conservatives are losing—and further, why evangelicals, the foot soldiers of the religious right, probably can’t do anything about it without in effect ceasing to be evangelicals (at least of the stripe they’ve been for 30-plus years).

When I was a young journalist in New York, I witnessed and to some extent covered the rise of the post-AIDS gay and lesbian movement, as it was then known. I remember the rise of ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power. ACT UP got in people’s faces, and certainly to some extent understandably so. But there were the occasional militant actions that lost potential supporters—the kiss-ins at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, notably, and even on one occasion I recall the desecration of the Host by one protestor within the Cathedral itself on a Sunday morning. That one lost even me, as well as a lot of people more important than I am.

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/08/what-evangelicals-can-learn-from-the-gay-rights-fight.html

May 7, 2015

Virginia GOP congressman claims ISIS has invaded Texas: ‘You can’t make up what a terrible problem t

Source: RawStory

Virginia GOP congressman claims ISIS has invaded Texas: ‘You can’t make up what a terrible problem this is’

Representative David Brat (R-VA) warned a Washington Times reporter that Texas is under threat from an armed insurgency. And Brat isn’t even talking about “the invasion by federal troops under the auspices of President Obama and Operation Jade Helm,” the Houston Chronicle Reports. Brat says Islamic State jihadists have a base in Texas.

During a taping of conservative media personality Rusty Humphries’ radio show, Brat told the host — beyond the Obama-imposed institution of martial law in the American southwest — he’s worried about ISIS, a Syria-based militia several tens-of-thousands of people strong. In contrast, the U.S. military has approximately 1.4 million people currently serving in active duty positions around the world. And then there are defense contractors.

“In our country it looks like we have an ISIS center in Texas now, that’s been reported last week,” Brat alleges to Humphries in audio reported by Right Wing Watch. “You can’t make up what a terrible problem this is.”

Reporters at the Houston Chronicle point out that no official body in a position to be aware of an ISIS uprising in the Lone Star State believes that such a threat exists in the first place.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/virginia-gop-congressman-claims-isis-has-invaded-texas-you-cant-make-up-what-a-terrible-problem-this-is/