Nancy Pelosi

Pelosi Puts The Kibosh On GOP Payroll Tax Cut Strategy

Brian Beutler | December 2, 2011, 5:15PM

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says Republicans can forget about using the looming expiration of a year-long payroll tax holiday for workers to squeeze a host of unrelated conservative priorities through Congress, and projected confidently that her party has the GOP cornered on the issue.

In an exclusive interview Friday with TPM, Pelosi sketched out the Democrats' strategy for renewing (and possibly expanding) the payroll tax cut, which most economists say would promote job creation next year -- when persistent unemployment will be at the center of the election debate.

"It is really a stalling tactic," Pelosi said of recent reports that Republicans want to use the lapsing tax cut as leverage to pass key GOP priorities, including construction of a major oil pipeline from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico, and rolling back Obama's health care law. "It's unworthy of the needs of the American people for them to go all around the mulberry bush with this stuff. If they want to do something for the American people -- to remove the uncertainty as to whether these payroll tax cuts will be extended, whether [unemployment insurance] will be extended ... let's just get about doing it."

"They know that this stuff isn't going to fly, that the President's not going to sign it -- so why are they doing this," Pelosi says. "It's about votes at the end of the day, and some of their people are never going to vote for anything, so they're going to need our votes, we're going to have to work together, and they're going to need the President's signature -- and they're going to need it to pass the Senate."

Read more »

Wisconsin Protests

Walker's New Plan: Charge Protesters Big Money

Eric Kleefeld | December 2, 2011, 12:54PM

Protesters inside the Wisconsin State Capitol on March 10, 2011 in Madison, Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's administration is rolling out a new strategy to deal with the waves of protests that have fallen upon the state Capitol, ever since he rolled out his anti-public employee union legislation, and which have given rise to the recall campaigns targeting him and other Republicans: Make the protesters pay for all the costs of the increased event security.

As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports, the Walker administration announced the new policy on Thursday, and it will be phased in by Dec. 16. Under the policy, groups of four or more people must request permits at least 72 hours in advance, for events at the state Capitol or other state buildings.

In addition, organizers would have to pay for the extra Capitol police officers, at a rate of $50 per hour per officer -- plus costs for police officers brought in from outside agencies, according to the costs billed to the state. The police payment would have to be tendered in advance, as a requirement for getting a permit. Afterwards, organizers would then be charged for any clean-up costs.

Read more »

Occupy Wall Street

30 Tons Of Debris Left Behind At Occupy L.A. Camp

David Taintor | December 1, 2011, 12:55PM

Occupy protestors in Los Angeles were evicted from their encampment earlier this week, and sanitation officials on Wednesday said they are expecting to haul away 30 tons of debris from the cleared camp, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Read more »

Occupy Wall Street

Republicans Learn How To Spin Occupy Wall Street

Igor Bobic | December 1, 2011, 10:09AM

Yahoo News' Chris Moody knocks it out of the ball park with his latest report from Orlando, Florida, where the Republican Governors Association met with top GOP message-man-turned-Yoda Frank Luntz. The crux of their meeting? Learning how to wiggle out of uncomfortable moments whenever questioned about the politically inconvenient Occupy Wall Street movement.

Staring down a crazed youth angry about inequality? Don't panic, says Luntz. Instead, follow this handy-dandy guide guaranteed to help pacify your subject, explain that things actually aren't all that bad, and that Republican policies can make it better.

Read more »

The Daily Show

Brian Williams Pranks The Daily Show With Fire Alarm

David Taintor | December 1, 2011, 9:42AM

Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart just couldn't help himself.

The Daily Show on Wednesday dedicated an entire segment having a laugh at NBC Nightly News' expense. On Tuesday, during Brian Williams' broadcast, an incessant fire alarm rang out in the newsroom. Williams -- Mr. Television that he is -- handled the situation gracefully. But Stewart couldn't let it slide.

Read more »

Michael Bloomberg

Bloomberg: The NYPD Is 'My Own Army'

David Taintor | November 30, 2011, 3:08PM

Being mayor of New York is awesome, Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday during a speech at MIT.

"I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world," Bloomberg said, according to the New York Observer. "I have my own State Department, much to Foggy Bottom's annoyance. We have the United Nations in New York, and so we have an entree into the diplomatic world that Washington does not have."

Read more »

Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart: Barney Frank Is The 'Everything Bagel' Of Things Conservatives Hate

David Taintor | November 30, 2011, 9:45AM

Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart isn't sure why conservative pundits are celebrating Rep. Barney Frank's retirement from Congress after a long career as a top Democratic player in the House of Representatives.

Congressional redistricting in Massachusetts, which could have made for tough fights down the road, motivated Frank to end his Congressional career.

Read more »

Andrew Cuomo

New York Judge OKs Lawsuit To Repeal Marriage Equality Law

Jillian Rayfield | November 30, 2011, 5:52AM

A state Supreme Court judge in New York will allow a lawsuit against the state's marriage equality law to move forward, citing concerns about whether officials broke the state's open meetings law in the lead-up to the vote last June.

Read more »

John Kasich

Kasich: 'My Life Is A Lot Better' Without Newspapers

David Taintor | November 29, 2011, 1:18PM

Governor John Kasich (R-OH)

Newspapers really are a bummer, aren't they? Always informing readers of news from far-away places, of local legislatures and even governors, like Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who it turns out couldn't care less.

"I don't read newspapers in the state of Ohio," Kasich said Monday at a college in Columbus. "Very rarely do I read a newspaper. Because ... reading newspapers does not give you an uplifting experience. ... I have found my life is a lot better if I don't get aggravated by what I read in the newspaper."

Read more »

Debt ceiling

OLC Gave Guidance To Obama On 14th Amendment During Debt Ceiling Showdown

Ryan J. Reilly | November 29, 2011, 11:00AM

President Barack Obama

The Office of Legal Counsel advised President Barack Obama on whether he could ignore Congress and raise the debt ceiling himself under the 14th Amendment. We just don't know what they told him.

TPM filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for any final memo that OLC issued on whether Obama -- as progressives had wanted -- could continue to pay government obligations if Congress had refused to raise the statutory debt limit.

Read more »

The Daily Show

Jon Stewart: 'Pepper Spray Has Become America's New Car Horn'

David Taintor | November 29, 2011, 10:12AM

Jon Stewart

The Daily Show on Monday returned from a short break to take on a hot new story: pepper spray sweeping the nation.

Read more »

Wisconsin Recalls

Wis Dems Say They're Already Halfway There On Walker Recall Signatures

Eric Kleefeld | November 28, 2011, 8:46PM

Protesters inside the Wisconsin State Capitol on March 10, 2011 in Madison, Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Democrats have made a huge announcement in their effort to recall Gov. Scott Walker. They say that in the first 12 days of the petition effort, up through this past Saturday night, they now claim to have collected over 300,000 signatures -- more than halfway to the goal that they have 60 days total to meet.

In order to trigger a recall against Walker, the Dems must meet a high bar: Signatures of at least 25 percent of the number of voters in the previous gubernatorial election must be collected in a 60-day window. That means the Dems must get over 540,000 signatures -- over 9,000 per day, statewide -- plus some significant buffer that campaigns routinely collect in order to protect against signatures being disqualified over one imperfection or another.

But even against that lofty requirement, the Dems are claiming that in the 12 days since the recall launched, they have collected over 1,000 signatures per hour. Put another way, when measured against just the 9,000-per-day requirement, they claim to have taken only 12 days to reach where they had to be at about Day 33.

Read more »