Elizabeth Bisbee Silber: The G.O.P. Naughty List

Congress Poised To Expedite 9/11 Responders Bill Over GOP Objections
After months of GOP obstruction, a bill to help 9/11 First Responders cover their mounting Health Care costs is expected to zip through Congress. In addition to being a feather in the cap of New York and New Jersey Democrats -- who have been pushing the bill for months -- it will likely enjoy the distinction of being the last legislative item to pass the unusually productive 111th Congress lame duck session. Republicans have blocked the bill in both the House and Senate over objections to its ...

Dem Rep: 'God Willing ... Border Will Become an Irrelevancy'
You must login to comment. The Fox Nation is for those opposed to intolerance, excessive government control of our lives, and attempts to monopolize opinion or suppress freedom of thought, expression, and worship. Read more... We invite all Americans who share these values to join us here at Fox Nation. A dog in Germany has given birth to 17 puppies, leaving their owner thrilled but fatigued after having to feed them with a bottle for several weeks because their mother couldn't cope with the dem...

President Obama Signs 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Repeal
With the stroke of several pens, President Obama signed the Repeal Wednesday of the longstanding policy banning gays from serving openly in the Military, capping off a yearlong legislative battle that just weeks ago seemed in danger of collapsing. Obama said he was "overwhelmed" as he put his name to the law rescinding the 1993 policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." He said the decision would strengthen National Security. "Our people sacrificed a lot for their country, including their lives," ...

Last Chance for 9-11 Health Bill
After new START gets ratification today, we’re going to apparently get the first test vote on the 9-11 Health Care bill. With Tom Coburn committed to blocking or at least delaying the bill, there’s no chance of unanimous consent, but the leadership of both parties is working out some kind of agreement to consider it. The House is prepared to pass the measure as well, but they’re waiting to see what the Senate will do. Basically, nobody wants to come back the week after Chris...

Joe Manchin Apologizes for Missing Key Senate Votes, Cites Family Gathering
West Virginia freshman Sen. Joe Manchin, sworn in only five weeks ago, had to apologize for missing key votes last weekend on Immigration Reform and Repeal of the ban on gays serving openly in the Military. It seems the holidays got in the way. Manchin, the former Governor of the Mountain State, took office on Nov. 15, replacing interim Sen. Carte Godwin, the lawmaker he had appointed to fill a vacancy left by the death of Robert Byrd. "Let me apologize to anybody and everybody within our listen...

Rejoin the military, Obama tells gays
President Barack Obama signed into law Legislation lifting the ban on gays serving openly in the Military, repealing a 17-year-old policy and fulfilling a campaign promise. The law will “strengthen our National Security and uphold the ideals that our fighting men and women risk their lives to defend,” Obama said during a signing ceremony this morning at the Interior Department. Members of the Armed Forces make numerous sacrifices to serve, he said. “None of them should have ...

Democrats slam Republicans on 9/11 health bill
WASHINGTON — The White House Tuesday told Republicans to ditch an "awful" pre-Christmas bid to block a health bill for hero September 11 emergency workers, amid agonized tales by First Responders of loss and sickness. The bill, caught up in the fierce Partisanship of a Lame Duck session of Congress, would offer Health Care to fire and police officers and other First Responders who rushed to the scene of the World Trade Center attack in 2001. Some emergency workers who survived the collapse...

Rachel Maddow: 'All Hail Shep Smith At Fox News' (VIDEO)
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow lauded Fox News host Shep Smith last night for his repeated walloping of Republicans for opposing the 9/11 First Responders bill. "Shep Smith making a hullabaloo on his show about the Republicans who are not supporting Health Care for 9/11 First Responders means that those Republicans might feel compelled to explain publicly why they don't support Health Care for 9/11 first responders." If you recall, Shep first said "it's disgusting" that the bill hasn't been able to pa...

Lame ducks, RINOs, and 'tolerance'
The Lame Ducks are doing as much damage as possible in their final hours. But they couldn't do it without help from Republicans, who have been complicit in the Repeal of DADT, in the sudden caving on the Food Safety bill, and in the ratification of the START Treaty. Nice Deb has video of a Press Conference given by GOP senators who are opposed to ramming this weak treaty through the Senate, 111th-style: Missing are Lamar Alexander, Bob Corker, Scott Brown, and Judd Gregg, who, for some inexpl...

Dont Ask, Dont Tell Finally Repealed
In one of the great Civil Liberties victories of our age, President Barack Obama this morning sign the formal Repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell — an obnoxious policy of Discrimination put into effect under President Bill Clinton. At the time, many of us criticized Clinton for not having the courage to reject Discrimination against gays and Lesbians — even if we lost the fight on principle. Instead, we have had this insidious and hypocritical policy in place — resu...

Will The Right File Suit To Stop DADT Repeal?
It's been a long, hard fight. And as sobering as the outcome may be, we can all be proud that we stood our ground and did what was right for our Soldiers and our country. Now it's time to leave the outcome, however ominous it may be, in the hands of the Lord. But that apparent Resignation did not last long, as the very next day FRC announced that they would be working with Sen. John McCain and other Republicans on ways to limit and ultimately Repeal it: As for FRC, who will take great pleasure i...

Obama Signs Repeal Of Dont Ask, Dont Tell Policy
WASHINGTON (AP) - Declaring that members of the Military will no longer be asked to lie, President Barack Obama fulfilled a campaign promise Wednesday and signed a landmark law repealing the ban on gay men and women serving openly in the armed services. “This is a good day,” a beaming Obama said. “This is a very good day.” The new law ends the 17-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that forced gays to hide their Sexual Orientation or face ...

Obama Signs Repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Into Law
Amid applause, cries of thanks and chants of "Yes we can!," President Obama on Wednesday repealed the U.S. Military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which had banned gay service members from serving openly in the armed services. Proclaiming that the policy "will strengthen our National Security," the president vowed that "no longer will tens of thousands of Americans in uniform be asked to live a lie. Or look over their shoulders in order to serve the country they love." Paraphrasing Joint Chi...

Schumer: Obama Has 'Done Everything We Asked' On 9/11 Health Bill [Video]
There is at least one New York representative satisfied with President Obama's leadership on the 9/11 Health Care bill. "As for the president, he's done everything we've asked," Senator Chuck Schumer told Andrea Mitchell this morning in an appearance on Morning Joe. "I have no complaints about the president's role on this. He's had a lot on his plate, but on this issue, he has done what we have asked him to do." Schumer's comments come one day after Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney called on the ...

Despite New Funding Offsets, US Chamber Of Commerce Still Opposing 9/11 First Responders Bill
Last week, ThinkProgress reported that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce had quietly lobbied to help Republicans kill the "James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010," a bill to compensate the First Responders and emergency workers who suffered illnesses from working at Ground Zero. The Chamber - a powerful trade association representing the health Insurance Industry, ExxonMobil, as well as dozens of foreign corporations - opposed the bill because it paid for Health Care benefits by en...

Bluff, called
So it turns out that Sen. Bob Corker was full of it when he threatened that his side would derail the New START Treaty in revenge for the Obama/Reid decision to press ahead on repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. It now looks as if the treaty will pass with at least one vote to spare: and that Corker will vote for it, unless his diaper comes unpinned first. Of course, START is no progressive triumph; it’s what ought to be a fairly uncontroversial piece of Arms Control business. But...

9/11 Christmas Widow Wants Congress to Finish Zadroga
Magda Ryan wants Congress to think about her last Christmas while they ponder whether to head home and celebrate this year, or stay to pass the 9/11 health bill. Because a year ago Dec. 25 is the day she lost her husband, city Firefighter Jim Ryan, to Cancer that his doctors blamed on the poisons he breathed at Ground Zero, first trying to save people, then hauling the dead from the horrifying wreckage. “I’m anxious. I'm concerned about how my kids are going to feel on that day,&...

An Unpaid Debt
Anyone who was in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, remembers how the ash, paper and dust of the collapsing towers blew across Lower Manhattan. For days afterward, there was that peculiar smell — of burned paper and chemicals and death. That was the air that filled the lungs of tens of thousands of Firefighters, police officers, nurses, Paramedics, Soldiers and civilian volunteers who toiled for months to uncover the dead. More than nine years later, many of those First Responders are dead...

Take Action NOW for 9/11 Heroes
       Senate Republicans have blocked needed Health Care sevices  for 9/11 First Responders and recovery workers. In the words of Arizona Sen. John McCain, such Legislation is just “fooling around.” That’s not the way this country should treat those who unconditionally risked their lives to save others. In fact, it’s un-American.  Even though Congress is set to leave town any day, it’s not too late for lawmakers to pass the James

Robert Gates is Man of Year at MTV college network
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - You know the 1960s are a long time ago when a TV network targeting College Students names the civilian head of the Military as its Man of the Year, but that's exactly what mtvU did on Wednesday. The 24-hour offshoot of the MTV lifestyle Cable Network has picked Defense Secretary Robert Gates as its inaugural Man of the Year. A committee of mtvU staff also named Nicki Minaj, a rookie rapper with fluorescent hair, as Woman of the Year. "It is somewhat counter-intuitive," MT...

Robert Gates is Man of Year at MTV college network
Los Angeles | Wed Dec 22, 2010 9:34am EST Los Angeles (Reuters) - You know the 1960s are a long time ago when a TV network targeting College Students names the civilian head of the Military as its Man of the Year, but that's exactly what mtvU did on Wednesday. The 24-hour offshoot of the MTV lifestyle Cable Network has picked Defense Secretary Robert Gates as its inaugural Man of the Year. A committee of mtvU staff also named Nicki Minaj, a rookie rapper with fluorescent hair, as Woman of the...

Robert Gates is Man of Year at MTV college network
The 24-hour offshoot of the MTV lifestyle Cable Network has picked Defense Secretary Robert Gates as its inaugural Man of the Year. A committee of mtvU staff also named Nicki Minaj, a rookie rapper with fluorescent hair, as Woman of the Year. "It is somewhat counter-intuitive," MTV General Manager Stephen Friedman said of Gates. "But when you look at what he's done, especially this year ... he's really a role model as a public servant who has avoided the partisan Rhetoric." Gates, a former CIA ...

944 Magazine Announces Orange Drive's 'Jam on the Sand' to be Its Official New Year's Eve Party
WASHINGTON (AP) - Those who hold the Senate in low esteem can get a sympathetic ear from some of the chamber's newer members. These lawmakers also are fed up with the Senate's ways and would like to change them. "A graveyard of good ideas" is how freshman Democrat Tom Udall of New Mexico sees the Senate. "Out of whack with the way the rest of the world is," says another freshman, Michael Bennet, D-Colo. "Just defies common sense" is the impression of Claire McCaskill, a first-term Democrat from...

Obama Signs DADT Repeal Into Law
President Obama this morning signed into law the bill repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell. "I am just overwhelmed," Obama said as he took the stage among chants of "Yes we can!" and whoops from the audience. "This is a very good day." "No longer will our country be denied the service of thousands of patriotic Americans who were forced to leave the Military, regardless of their skills, no matter their Bravery or their zeal, no matter their years of exemplary performance, because they happen to be ...

President Obama To Sign Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal This Morning
President Obama is scheduled to sign a bill repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell, at 9:15 a.m. ET today. The bill, which was passed by the House last Wednesday and the Senate on Saturday, was certified by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday in a ceremony that was attended by hundreds of supporters, including gay servicemembers. The new law will, eventually, end the Military's ban on Openly Gay and Lesbian servicemembers. The policy will be repealed 60 days after Obama, Defense Secretary Gates and...