GOP declares that they will not support #HCR if they don't get 100% of what they want

It's only fair - they are the majority party according to CNN:

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) has been hinting at this, but made the point quite explicitly this morning. Cantor's office told Greg Sargent "there's not much to talk about" with the White House unless Democratic policymakers completely "scrap their government takeover" and agree to embrace the Republican policy in its entirety.

Republicans believe the status quo is unacceptable, but so is any health reform package that spends money we don't have or raises taxes on small businesses and working families in a recession. To that point, House Republicans have offered the only plan , that will lower health care costs, which is what the President said was the goal at the start of this debate.

I think the Dems should capitulate to the GOP because I am sure they will support whatever a black, centrist POTUS wants and the teabaggers will salute the GOP for it.

Rahm's apology: 60 votes to take a dump.

Rahm address the tards:

The future of America: anti-gay, pro-white, christian, anti-tax. Just as Jesus intended when he created America

The return to the promised land is close at hand:

The National Tea Party Convention, which wrapped up Saturday night with a televised speech by Sarah Palin, offered an outlet for some of the fouler strands of modern conservatism that had long been bubbling beneath the surface of the Tea Party movement.

Tea Party leaders had worked hard to keep the public face of the movement focused tightly on a small government, anti-tax message, largely steering clear of social issues, and appeals based explicitly on race. But this weekend, from the podium at Nashville's Gaylord Opryland Hotel, convention speakers espoused birtherism, anti-immigrant nativism, homophobia, Christian fundamentalism, and an apparent nostalgia for racially discriminatory barriers to voting.

OMG! OMG! Wall street is mad at Dems, happy with GOP. Time to panic

It's clearly the time to drop everything and cut taxes for bankers:

In a Message to Democrats, Wall St. Sends Cash to G.O.P.
Bankers, unhappy at the president’s proposals for tighter financial regulations, are shifting donations to Republicans

Dear bankers, go fuck yourselves. I am sure a new narrative will replace "facts":

It never stops:

This new tea party bears no resemblance to the one that began a year ago as a reaction to the collapse of our financial system and the subsequent bailout. That movement of ragtag and unorganized libertarians, independents and conservatives was something new and unique. An authentic protest movement angered not just by the new President, Barack Obama, who had presided over the bailouts but the president who started the ball rolling and whose incompetence had led to the crisis in the first place, George W. Bush.

Obama hadn’t even been elected when the bank bailout occurred, let alone presided over it.

Facts shmacts.

NYTimes article highlights public education programs that help the middle-class but doesn't mention why they are threatened by budget cuts

Would it hurt the NYT to have more stories like this about how public schools/community colleges help the middle-class and lower income folks instead of yet another Paul Sullivan authored article about how the "wealthy are hurting "?

When the bus arrives, she checks in with a guidance counselor and heads off to a day of college classes, blending with older classmates until 4 p.m., when she and the other seniors from SandHoke Early College High School gather for the ride home.

There is a payoff for the long bus rides: The 48 SandHoke seniors are in a fast-track program that allows them to earn their high-school diploma and up to two years of college credit in five years — completely free.

Until recently, most programs like this were aimed at affluent, overachieving students — a way to keep them challenged and give them a head start on college work. But the goal is quite different at SandHoke, which enrolls only students whose parents do not have college degrees.

Here, and at North Carolina’s other 70 early-college schools, the goal is to keep at-risk students in school by eliminating the divide between high school and college.

Missing from the article is how cutting education for middle-class while boosting tax cuts for the rich affects highly beneficial programs like these. A follow up, please?

The economics of buying into wall street's arguments @planetmoney #CFPA

Sort of interesting. After probably the most badgering and insulting interview last year (Planet Money's interview of Elizabeth Warren), NPR Planet Money has been strangely quiet about the CFPA or any financial reform. Their entire focus was on how the financial industry needs to be propped up first and foremost and any consumer concern needs to be sidelined. Now that the banks have been propped up, they have conveniently moved on .. no word on protecting consumers, investors, shareholders. What wall street meltdown, right?

This is the guy who wants to keep his bonus and who wants a tax cut

And the GOP loves him:

Fund Manager Sues to Keep Monthly Rent at $380
The head of Haberman Value Fund is suing over a vote by the building’s board, made up of his own family members, that would bring the rent “closer to market value,” according to press reports.

One story rentals in the building at 737 Park Ave. apparently go for an average of $8,000 a month.

“The proposed rent increase would increase the rent rate for Ross’s apartment by as much as 30 times,” the lawsuit said.

Mr. Haberman claims that his grandfather, real estate developer Louis Katz, set up the $300 rentals for his grandchildren, and he says that the board has no authority to raise the rents. (Mr. Haberman pays $380 a month after linking his apartment with one below.)