Juan Cole: "Congress Wants the Department of Defense to Propagandize Americans"

Juan Cole (Informed Comment):

Two congressmen are attempting to insert a provision in the National Defense Authorization act that would allow the Department of Defense to subject the US domestic public to propaganda. The bipartisan amendment was introduced by Rep. Mac Thornberry from Texas and Rep. Adam Smith from Washington State. Nothing speaks more urgently to the creeping fascism of American politics than the assertion by our representatives, who apparently have never read a book on Germany in the 1930s-1940s or on the Soviet Union in the Stalin period, that forbidding DoD and the State Department from subjecting us to government propaganda “ties the hands of America’s diplomatic officials, military, and others by inhibiting our ability to effectively communicate in a credible way.” And mind you, they want to use our own money to wash our brains! MORE...

Melissa Harris-Perry: "The Evolution was Televised" (with video)

Melissa Harris-Perry with video (10:17):

Both the First Lady Michelle Obama and presidential candidate Mitt Romney delivered college commencement speeches on Saturday, but each speaker set a very different tone in addressing marriage equality. Melissa Harris-Perry and her guests – including University of Pennsylvania professor Anthea Butler, Newsweek/The Daily Beast correspondent Michael Tomasky, and Feministing.com editor Chloe Angyal – break down the narratives behind both messages.

Horsey: "Feeding Time" (cartoon and text)

David Horsey (Los Angeles Times):

If money is the mother’s milk of politics, then America’s big corporations are Big Mama and Big Baby is the Republican Party suckling at the enormous bosom of business. Democrats, meanwhile, are abandoned brats scrounging for nourishment wherever they can find it. (SNIP) Corporate America has always gotten a good return on its investment in politics. Business interests hold inordinate sway over the legislation that affects them (Heck, their lobbyists write most of the bills). Now, though, with the Republican Party as their wholly owned subsidiary, the titans of industry apparently feel no need to hedge their bets by helping out a few Democrats. The corporations no longer pretend they do not have a favorite child. They have picked their favorite and, like a doting mother, they will hold him close, they will baby him, they will keep him fat and happy, and they will ask for only one thing in return: obedience. MORE...

H/t to Marcia Kato.

"Proven: Andrew Hughes Can Bicycle and Kayak. But, Can He Beat Jim McDermott?"

Photo: Revel Smith / Andrew Hughes Campaign-"The Stranger (left) defeated Andrew Hughes (right) in the biking portion of his trek. Hughes then easily defeated The Stranger in the kayak segment. Next up for defeat, Hughes hopes: Congressman Jim McDermott." 

Eli Sanders (SLOG):

Hughes, whose fledgeling campaign has knocked on 6,000 doors since April—with 2,000 of those doors knocked on by Hughes himself—admitted: "Mt. McDermott's a big mountain to climb." Which points directly to the question: Is Hughes up for that kind of challenge? MORE...

Howie P.S.: Does Hughes have to "win" this time out in order to have achieved "success?"

Joe Biden Kicks Ass in in Youngstown, Ohio (with video)

"Joe Biden Goes Nuclear On Rich During Speech At Campaign Stop" is the headline the editors gave Noah Rothman's story on MEDIAite where I found this video (01:36).

"Who increased the debt?"

H/t to Octavio Rosales Plascencia who shared Michael Eugene Berg's photo.

Howie P.S.: I've seen this information before, but some FACTS bear repeating.

Matt Stoller on "internet Democrats" and "institutional DC self-described progressive groups with money and glitz"

Matt Stoller (naked capitalism):

At this point, even Moveon members won’t vote for self-proclaimed progressive candidates. And labor and DC liberals can’t deliver votes, but money can. Those are the lessons that insiders are drawing from two important but little noted Congressional primaries that happened late last month, one in Illinois and one in Maryland. MORE...

"White House Correspondents’ Dinner: Soup to Nuts" (with video)

Hendrik Hertzberg (The New Yorker) with video (23:26):

President Obama acquitted himself handily. Jane has the video. In the bit I liked best, which begins at the fourteen-minute mark, Obama unveils his secret agenda for the second term. (“In my first term, we ended the war in Iraq. In my second term, I will win the war on Christmas.”) Jimmy Kimmel, who followed, did about as well as whatever professional comedian is chosen for the assignment usually does, which is to say that only about half his jokes misfired. But even if they’d all fizzled except one, that one would have redeemed him. It’s his take on Bill O’Reilly’s book about the Lincoln assassination, and it starts at about eight and a half minutes in (above). MORE...

Should we subsize oil companies or college students?

Just askin'.

"Frank Rich on the National Circus"

Frank Rich (New York Magazine):

The third-party group Americans Elect announced yesterday that although they had "achieved every stated operational goal," no candidate had gained enough support to actually get nominated at their online convention. Was this idea doomed from the start? This is a fascinating episode that deserves far more scrutiny. In a very short time this “centrist” group spent $35 million on its effort to harm Obama’s reelection campaign by plotting to place a moderate candidate on the ballot as a spoiler in all 50 states. Americans Elect’s most prominent and vocal supporters were Thomas L. Friedman of the Times, the Obama–loathing pollster Douglas Schoen (a nominal Democrat), and Mark McKinnon, the former George W. Bush ad guy who plays a congenial centrist on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. The hope was to get a Michael Bloomberg, Jon Huntsman, or David Petraeus to run; in the end, the leading Americans Elect candidate was the former Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer, best known for being too inept to rise to the low single-digits polling level of even Huntsman during the GOP presidential primary contest last fall. My question: Who gave that $35 million and where did it all vanish in a matter of months? Paul Krugman, who has been relishing the demise of Americans Elect and slyly mocking his colleague Friedman for his support of it, should stay on the case. MORE...

"John Nichols: Scott Walker's Divide-and-Conquer Strategy" (with video)

Elizabeth Whitman (The Nation), with video (05:51):

A newly available video of a conversation between a donor and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker confirms Walker's true intentions about labor—his bill was not about balancing the budget, as he claims, but about taking away labor rights and destroying unions one after another. John Nichols appears on the Ed Show to explain the impact and the importance of this new evidence on upcoming recall elections.

Howie P.S.: This morning Nichols spoke with ED Schultz about this on the radio. They emphasized the national implications of the recall campaign and pushed hard on the DNC for their reluctance to show Wisconsin "the money."

David Letterman To Brian Williams: ‘What More Do We Want [Obama] To Do For Us, Honest To God?’ (with video)

Noah Rothman (MEDIAite) with video (11:23) from CBS:

NBC News anchor Brian Williams appeared on CBS’ The Late Show with David Letterman on Tuesday night. Letterman discussed Williams’s special on Rock Center about the killing of Osama bin Laden and became agitated when describing President Barack Obama’s successes as compared to what he sees as President George W. Bush’s failures in the War on Terror. “What more do we want this man to do for us, honest to god,” asked Letterman. MORE...

Howie P.S.: Not to repeat myself or (God forbid say "I told you so"), our best political commentary comes from the comedians.
Howie P.P.S.: Not to flip flop or anything on the above, Ari Melber is pretty good.

"Ask Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn" tackles the DOJ-Seattle Police Dept. issue (audio)

"WEEKDAY" (KUOW-Steve Scher), with audio:

The city of Seattle faces a Wednesday deadline to respond a Justice Department plan for reforming the Seattle Police Department. The mayor and SPD, meanwhile, are pursuing their own 20–point, 20–month reform agenda. Mayor Mike McGinn says he's trying to negotiate a mutually agreeable solution. We'll ask him about it. We'll also talk about his call to ease development rules as well as the city's decision to pull the plug on its broadband network. Have a question for the mayor? Call 800.289.5869 or email "Weekday."

Howie P.S.: I was interested to learn that Hizzoner heard a lot of community "concerns" regarding public safety and police issues during his campaign for Mayor. It looks like it took the DOJ action to get his attention about really doing something about the issue(s). As is his custom, Scher is a polite interviewer and didn't put his guest on the "hot seat."

Obama campaign ad on Romney and Bain Capital: "Steel" (video)

BarackObamadotcom, video (02:03):

Kansas City's GST Steel had been making steel rods for 105 years when Romney and his partners took control in 1993. They cut corners and extracted profit from the business at every turn, placing it deeply in debt. When the company eventually declared bankruptcy, workers not only lost their jobs but were denied their full pensions and health insurance, and the government was forced to step in and provide a bailout.

"A Message from Trayvon Martin's Mother Sybrina Fulton" (video)

SecondChanceCampaign, video (01:01):

Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin's mom, released a video asking parents nationwide to support the Second Chance campaign, a new national campaign working to reform, repeal and prevent passage of new Florida-style "Shoot First" laws around the country. The Second Chance campaign launched after Martin's death with the NAACP, the National Urban League, the National Action Network, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, VoteVets and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to oppose reckless Shoot First laws that are on the books of 26 states and pending in 10 more.

"What Occupiers Learned From Obama - and What He Should Learn From Them"

 "Occupy Wall Street protesters march at Zuccotti Park on November 5, 2011." (Photo: David Shankbone)

Sarah Jaffe (Truthout):

Disillusionment with Obama, for many of these activists, led not to a search for another hero - as Micah Sifry noted - but a turn away from the idea of heroes and toward the specific problems that need to be fixed. "The conversations are between people who are looking at the politics of personalities and people who are looking at the politics," Evry noted and Raneem echoed her. Evry continued, "OWS is very issue-oriented. It's not being built around leaders. You start looking at what do you believe in, what do you want to organize around?" MORE...

"Mother's Day History"

123holiday.net:

Contrary to popular belief, Mother's Day was not conceived and fine-tuned in the boardroom of Hallmark. The earliest tributes to mothers date back to the annual spring festival the Greeks dedicated to Rhea, the mother of many deities, and to the offerings ancient Romans made to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele. Christians celebrated this festival on the fourth Sunday in Lent in honor of Mary, mother of Christ. In England this holiday was expanded to include all mothers and was called Mothering Sunday. In the United States, Mother's Day started nearly 150 years ago, when Anna Jarvis , an Appalachian homemaker, organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community, a cause she believed would be best advocated by mothers. She called it "Mother's Work Day." Fifteen years later, Julia Ward Howe, a Boston poet, pacifist, suffragist, and author of the lyrics to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," organized a day encouraging mothers to rally for peace, since she believed they bore the loss of human life more harshly than anyone else. MORE...

Look who has a web ad on a progressive site!

From Booman Tribune.

"Around world, Obama's presidency a disappointment"

"In this July 24, 2008 file photo, President-elect Barack Obama waves as he arrives at the Victory Column in Berlin. In Europe, where more than 200,000 people thronged a Berlin rally in 2008 to hear Obama speak, there's disappointment that he hasn't kept his promise to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, and perceptions that he's shunting blame for the financial crisis."

Don Melvin, Rod McGuirk (AP):

In a world weary of war and economic crises, and concerned about global climate change, the consensus is that Obama has not lived up to the lofty expectations that surrounded his 2008 election and Nobel Peace Prize a year later. Many in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America were also taken aback by his support for gay marriage, a taboo subject among religious conservatives. But the Democrat still enjoys broad international support. In large part, it's because of unfavorable memories of his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, and many people would still prefer Obama over his presumptive Republican challenger Mitt Romney. MORE...

Howie P.S.: I'm not sure the feelings described above don't resemble those of many here in the U.S.

Seattle: "Sources Say"

Brian Brown (The Stranger):

• Jay Inslee, criticized by pundits for running a lackluster campaign, held a rally with DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz before 800 cheering supporters on May 3. You might not have heard about it, because virtually no media bothered to show up. But don't worry, the Times was there: the Seattle Emerald Chinese Times.
 • Seven and a half years into her eight-year regime, Governor Chris Gregoire on May 2 finally acknowledged that we need to raise taxes to fund education. A profile in courage!