By Patrick Derocher, on Mon Oct 17, 2011 at 12:30 PM ET Moderate State Senators in New York continue to be targeted by the National Organization for marriage. The National Organization for Marriage’s assault on moderate Republicans in New York shows no signs of stopping. After State Senators James Alesi, Mark Grisanti, Roy McDonald, and Stephen Saland, all of whom represent traditionally-Republican areas of Upstate New York, were feted by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg last week, NOM released an advertisement entitled “Money Dance,” in the style of the popular Jib-Jab political videos. The ad, which portrays the four Senators dancing in pairs while wearing tuxedos (intentionally evoking wedding couples) while being showered with cash, accuses the men of being bought off by wealthy donors who support same-sex marriage. [Albany Times Union]
In response to Republican-backed legislation that would require welfare recipients to undergo drug tests, Ohio State Representative Robert F. Hagan has put forth a bill that would require state-level elected officials, including lawmakers and Supreme Court justices, to take drug and alcohol tests. Such requirements would extend to people standing to benefit from the Troubled Assets Relief Program. The bill also includes a procedure for recalling elected officials in the State of Ohio. [Columbus Dispatch]
On the topic of recall elections, Wisconsin has a second round coming up on the horizon. By Wisconsin state law, legislators can be target for a recall after they have served one year of their terms; in November, 11 Republicans and six Democrats will become eligible. The 17 legislators join two Republicans and four Democrats who were targeted by recall efforts that failed to garner enough signatures in the last round of attempted ousters. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau), Senate Majority Leader, has said that he is considering targeting many if not all elegible Democrats. The current spate of chaos is on top of a pre-existing effort to recall Governor Scott Walker. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
Pennsylvania Democrats seem to be stricken with the same incumbent-challenging ailment as establishment Republicans. Tim Burns, a businessman from rural Western Pennsylvania, has entered the race for the Republican nomination for Senator, challenging single-term incumbent Bob Case, Jr. Burns, a failed 2010 Congressional candidate, joins a crowded, but relatively undistinguished, Republican field that includes numerous other Tea Party-backers and businessmen. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
Occupy Iowa protesters are running into legal troubles with Republican Governor Terry Branstad and his administration, as the state has refused to reauthorize a protest permit. In an effort to avoid being arrested by the State Police, the protestors were working to pull together as large a protest as they could, numbering in the several hundreds and aiming for at least 1,000. [Des Moines Register]
In a rather odd move for a man who was elected claiming he would create 700,000 jobs on top of expected growth, Florida Governor Rick Scott told a radio show that he “didn’t have to create any jobs,” and only needed to focus on making sure that job growth was positive. The comment was made on a show hosted by Bud Hedinger, a conservative talk radio host in suburban Orlando who broke the right wing radio mold by pressing Scott on his jobs record and the fact that he now questions the usefulness of Florida’s economic prediction models. [St. Petersburg Times Forum]
California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, roundly criticized his state for complacency about jobs. Pushing his jobs plan, one that has been overshadowed by Governor Jerry Brown’s, Newsom said “We’re like the aging high school football player that talks about the good ol’ days,” referring to the state’s breakneck jobs creation record between the 1950’s and 1980’s, at a conference in Beverly Hills. Interestingly, Newsom attributed the problem, at least in part, to bitter partisanship in Sacramento, calling the state legislature “tribal.” [Sacramento Bee]
By Grant Smith, RP Staff, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 at 3:00 PM ET
Steve Jobs was a lousy role model. [Forbes]
Google’s tax bill has been released…read all about it here. [Fortune]
Apple’s iPhone 4S hits stores as fans remember Steve Jobs. [CNBC]
Suburbia begins to slip below the poverty line. [Huffington Post]
Surprising new study finds that wealth managers now prefer to use Apple iPhones over RIM’s Blackberry’s. [Reuters]
By Chris Schulz, RP Staff, on Thu Oct 13, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET Dear Mr. Buffett,
In the news recently, you, along with other millionaires, advocated for the raising of taxes among the rich–you demanded this action from President Obama as part of a solution to achieve a balanced budget. As one of the world’s richest men, you certainly have plenty of money to spare and you should do with that money as you please. However, you made your money in a free-market. You were able to identify undervalued and underperforming firms, purchase them and then turn them around into solid investments. No one on this planet has a better idea of return on investment (ROI) than you do. You have made a career of identifying the most efficient uses of your money and then you decided where your dollars would have the greatest return and invested there. In the free market environment that allowed you to make your billions, shouldn’t consumers decide where their money goes?
I would prefer to take my money and go out to eat at a local restaurant. This allows the chef to make a living, pay rent on a building, hire employees, get locally sourced foods from farms and local artisans, which then allows the farmers to live and pay their bills. Or I could donate my money to a charity, one that spends little on administrative expenses and instead gives most of the money back to those it means to help. These charities allow homeless people to get off the streets and find jobs, provide access to college for the underprivileged, provide clean water to third world countries, or fund research on various diseases. Another alternative is to donate my money to the Federal Government. I could decide that the Federal Agencies need $16 muffins, or I may think that nominal public officials need to spend public money on excessive bodyguards, or to tear-up and re-build perfectly good roads in a Keynesian attempt to improve the economy.
Read the rest of…
Chris Schulz: An Open Letter to Warren Buffet
By Jeff Smith, on Wed Oct 12, 2011 at 12:00 PM ET  Occupy Wall Street has the potential to become a progressive tea party, if its energy and passion is effectively channeled.
The spontaneous uprisings in a variety of cities demonstrate that the dissatisfaction isn’t limited to liberal NYC students and professional activists, but has struck a chord with regular folks around the country.
And the Reid millionaire surtax amendment to Obama’s jobs bill this week suggests that this new populism is being heard in the nation’s corridors of power.
(Cross-posted, with permission of the author, from Politico’s Arena)
By Artur Davis, on Wed Oct 12, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET This time, the fire is rising on the left. The “Occupy Wall Street” movement has the sound and the fury, and is matching the size, of the 2009 tea party rallies. OWS is the hard left version of the animus toward elites that is fervent in every sector of the country and there is every reason to think it, or something like it, is about to transform liberalism as much as the tea party has remade conservatism. If you value a politics that can foster consensus and overcome gridlock, this is one more thing that should make you very afraid.
Arguably, the “occupiers” and the tea partiers are the latest flavor of a populism that runs deep in our history. While misunderstood as a conservative phenomenon, populism is actually the ultimate big tent, and has been owned and abused by bullhorns on both sides of the spectrum. In the last hundred years, the populist label has been worn both by southern segregationists who wanted to force a “sharing of the wealth” and garment district leftists who thought industrial unions were too tame.
Read the rest of…
Artur Davis: Occupy Wall Street Has Sound & Fury of Tea Party
By Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, on Tue Oct 11, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET  While I admire Sarah Palin for breaking ground as a woman candidate, we don’t agree on many policy issues. But her tirade in Iowa a few weeks ago against what she called “corporate crony capitalism” captured my attention. She said, “It’s not the capitalism of free men and free markets, of innovation and hard work and ethics, of sacrifice and of risk. No, this is the capitalism of connections and government bailouts and handouts and influence peddling and corporate welfare.”
Good for Sarah Palin.
Naturally she singled out President Obama, but, to her credit, she also took on her own party. Republican candidates “who raise mammoth amounts of cash,” she said, should be asked what their donors “expect in return for their investments.”
 I admire Sarah Palin for speaking out loudly and forcefully against crony capitalism. It’s all too common for the rich and powerful to bend government to their own purposes and get contracts, tax and legal breaks, and other preferential treatment through their political connections. This cronyism distorts our markets and promotes distrust of Washington.
People with less money can’t get these special privileges. This at a time when the richest 1 percent already receive 25 percent of all income and control 40 percent of the country’s wealth.
In her speech, Palin blamed the president for the help he gave the auto industry and for the bank bailouts that actually occurred under George Bush. As far as the auto industry goes, I think President Obama made a gutsy call that saved thousands of jobs and one of the most important businesses in our country. Eventually the government will be paid back in full.
Read the rest of…
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend: Why I Agree With Sarah Palin
By Patrick Derocher, on Mon Oct 10, 2011 at 12:45 PM ET Expected to begin full operation in 2012, the GlobalFoundries facility in Malta, New York has already cost that state's taxpayers a large amount of money, much of which has gone to luxuries. In a mildly Solyndra-esque moment, the $1.4 billion that the State of New York granted to semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries to build a plant in suburban Albany was found to have included more than $600 million in cash. This cash, as it so happens, went in large quantities to such luxury items as flat-panel TVs, catered meals, and supermarket gift cards. Albany’s Times Union has a full investigation. [Albany Times Union]
The Senate Bill 5 drama continues in Ohio, as Alliance for America’s Future, a Virginia-based group, has begun funneling money into anti-collective bargaining legislature. The group, headed by the former chief of staff to Republican US Representative Jean Schmidt, counts Mary Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, among its members, is initiating a mail program targeting Ohioans who will vote on the SB5 come November. [Columbus Dispatch]
In an interesting, unexpected maneuver, the Michigan State Senate has voted to end health benefits for retired state legislators, in a perhaps even more surprising 37-1 vote. This will apply to all legislators who have not served six years by 2013, including numerous members of the State House and two members of the State Senate. [Lansing State Journal]
A study by a smart growth advocacy group in Wisconsin contends that the state’s gas tax would have to nearly triple in order to cover new road construction there. This is in opposition to common claims that new road construction pays for itself via gas taxes and other natural revenue increases. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
According to a Silicon Valley-based watchdog, California Common Sense, the California State Assembly is reporting staff salaries inaccurately, in particular as regards the source of the money. The group found that some 170 personal staffers were being paid out of committee budgets, while another 70 benefited from leadership stipends received by top-ranking assemblymen and women. [Sacramento Bee]
The Tea Party has office space in the Florida State Capitol- at least temporarily. Through a rule that allows State Senators to secure conference room space for their constituents, the Tea Party Network has been occupying room 227 at the Florida State Capitol, which the organization is calling its Tallahassee headquarters. The space was obtained through the office of Republican Senator Greg Evers, who represents the western portions of the Florida Panhandle. [St. Petersburg Times]
In the latest front of Republican-labor union fights, Indiana has seen fierce, vocal opposition to a right-to-work bill currently under consideration by the General Assembly. The bill would make it illegal in Indiana, as it is now in 22 other states, to make union membership or dues a precondition of employment. Although governor Mitch Daniels and the Republican-controlled state Senate and House of Representatives have generally been on better terms with unions than nearby states like Wisconsin and Ohio, there is nevertheless tension that has begun to creep to the surface in recent months. [Indianapolis Star]
By Grant Smith, RP Staff, on Fri Oct 7, 2011 at 3:00 PM ET
Steve Jobs: Technology’s greatest visionary. [Fortune]
Attention now focuses on Apple’s chief executive for design. [Wall Street Journal]
President Obama would accept a surtax on incomes over $1 million. [New York Times]
What lies ahead for Sarah Palin? [The Washington Post]
By Patrick Derocher, on Thu Oct 6, 2011 at 9:16 AM ET  Because no situation can avoid all traces of frivolity, a new Twitter hashtag has popped up in the past several days: #OccupySesameStreet. First emerging around the time of the Radiohead-performing-at-Occupy Wall Street hoax, the tag has become a bit of a running gag, with everyday Twitter users, in addition to celebrities like Patton Oswalt and Joshua Malina, coming up with Sesame Street-related Tweets with which to use the tag. We’re sure Jim Henson would have approved. [Gothamist]
By Paul Hodes, on Wed Oct 5, 2011 at 12:00 PM ET
I got a call recently from a staffer at the New Hampshire Democratic party.
It went something like this:
“Congressman Hodes?”
“Yes”
“We’re getting calls from the Press. What do you want us to say?”
“Press calls? What about?”
“You don’t know?”
“No, what’s going on?”
“I can’t believe I’m the one telling you this. It’s about your son.”
“What about my son?”
“Well, he’s been arrested on Wall Street. You didn’t see the story in the Wall Street Journal?“
 When someone calls and says they have news that you should have known about your son, all kinds of things go through your mind. In this case, I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Arrested on Wall Street? Piece ‘o’ cake compared to the other possibilities that cascaded through my mind.
It turns out Max was arrested for wearing a mask while demonstrating, under an ordinance dating to 1845 banning masked gatherings in New York City. He was held for a couple of hours and charged with loitering.
Read the rest of…
Paul Hodes: A Public Apology to My Son, The Wall Street Protestor
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