Daily Kos

Oh, look: sanity. A bill tying Planned Parenthood defunding to keeping the federal government open failed in the Senate Thursday afternoon—and in a bipartisan vote, no less, though some of the Republicans weren't exactly standing up for Planned Parenthood:

... 42 Democrats, two independents and eight Republicans banded together to stop the anti-abortion effort on a procedural vote, 11 more than the 41 needed to block the legislation.

At least one of the Republicans, Tom Cotton of Arkanas, said he cast his vote against the bill to protest inadequate military funding.

The Senate's next move is to take up a short-term bill keeping the government open without Planned Parenthood-related strings. As always, though, the House is likely to be problematic, so the government staying open is no sure thing.

Ted Cruz, a Republican candidate for president and resident Senate nut-job, was thrilled with Pope Francis's speech to Congress on Thursday morning, downright gushing over the pope's message that it is "our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development." In fact, Cruz said that the pope's words should make President Obama "very nervous" about opposing the Republican Party's latest effort to defund Planned Parenthood.

So, what about the pope's very next words on protecting and defending life, where he said:

This conviction has led me, from the beginning of my ministry, to advocate at different levels for the global abolition of the death penalty.

Meh. Not so much. Cruz:

... said he respected Francis’s views and the Catholic Church’s teachings on the issue, but “as a policy matter, I do not agree.”

Well, sure. That's policy as opposed to funding the government which is ... uh ... funding its policies?

What a loser. Here's Trump responding to a question from CNN's Alisyn Camerota on how he would deport more than 11 million undocumented immigrants living here:

"Through good management and through a process. And the process is the bad ones go and they never come back," Trump said. "They’re never coming back. The really good ones, and there are many, they will go and they will come back legally. They’ll come back on an expedited system."

She then asked if he would use the National Guard or police to enforce the policy.

"I would use different forms," Trump said. "It will take place and it will be done effectively and warmly and humanely. And a lot of people will be very happy about it. Did you know i had a good hispanic poll the other day?"

Trump, master of gross generalizations, succeeds again. Can't believe he didn't just recycle, "We're going to be looking at a lot of different things." But his addition of how "warmly and humanely" he would cast out 11 million people was a nice touch, don't ya think? Like hunting down 11 million people wouldn't be a witch hunt that turned neighbor against neighbor, eventually devolving into some form of police state.

This guy's delusional world may have worked fine when he kept it to himself but it's downright frightening now that he's visiting it upon the country.  

Republicans were outraged—outraged—when, at February's National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama said:

"Lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ … So this is not unique to one group or one religion. There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency that can pervert and distort our faith."

Speaking to Congress Thursday morning, Pope Francis said:

We know that no religion is immune from forms of individual delusion or ideological extremism. This means that we must be especially attentive to every type of fundamentalism, whether religious or of any other kind. A delicate balance is required to combat violence perpetrated in the name of a religion, an ideology or an economic system, while also safeguarding religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms.

Where's the outrage now? I ask you! Back in February, Ben Carson went on Fox News to condemn the president's remarks, suggesting that Obama was trying to "divert the attention away from the outrage that has been focused on the radical Islamic terrorists." How did that make him feel? "Perhaps we're being betrayed." So Carson must be in a fuss over the pope's very similar remarks, right?

Yeah, no:

I am delighted to have had the opportunity to hear @Pontifex share his message of faith and love today in our nation's Capitol. #PopeInDC

— Dr. Ben Carson (@RealBenCarson) September 24, 2015

Are you surprised? Because I have to say, this is not the most surprised I've been today. Are we getting to the point where Republican hypocrisy doesn't even register anymore?

• Today's comic by Ruben Bolling is Unpopular Mechanics: How to build a clock:
  
  
• Oops:
  

  CNN's live feed of Pope Francis' Thursday address to a joint session of Congress picked up audio of a woman saying she would "take my shoe off and throw it at his head" just before the pontiff entered the House chamber.

  Neither the identity of the speaker nor the theoretical target of her airborne shoe were clear from the live feed. Pope Francis had yet to enter the chamber when the audio was picked up.

• One more thing about the life and death of Yogi Berra:
  

  Yogi was born in 1925 and 1930 U.S. Census records show that Yogi’s father, Pietro, who arrived in the U.S. from northern Italy in 1909, still declared as an alien five years after Yogi was born. So did his mother, Pauline. It didn’t matter to Yogi, of course. The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteed him citizenship.

  Berra died Tuesday, and here’s the Sports Illustrated headline on its obituary: “Remembering the great American life of Yankees Legend Yogi Berra.” Yogi’s certainly was a great American life. Emphasis on “American.” And it was a life made possible by the 14th Amendment.

• Your fingerprints may not be yours alone:
  

  On the eve of Chinese President Xi Jinping's first state visit to Washington, DC, the Obama administration released alarming new numbers about one of the biggest computer hacks in American history—traceable, officials say, to China—a move that could potentially heighten tension ahead of the historic meeting.

  The Office of Personnel Management announced that it had substantially underestimated the number of people whose fingerprints were stolen during the attack earlier this year. About 5.6 million of 21.5 million federal employees, contractors, applicants, and others had their fingerprints stolen during a hack of the OPM's background check databases, the agency reported Wednesday morning. That figure is higher than the 1.1 million previously reported.

• These Daily Kos community posts were the most shared on Facebook September 23:
  

  Misogyny Does not Depend on Your Anatomical Parts: Carly Fiorina is Part of the War on Women, by Djhbutler

  Sheriff's Deputy Shot & Killed, But Right Wing Media Doesn't Seem to Care, by Steven D

  We Must End For-Profit Prisons, by Senator Bernie Sanders

• Horrifying:
  

  A stampede during one of the last rituals of the Hajj season -- the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca -- has killed more than 700 people and injured 800 others in Saudi Arabia.

  The stampede occurred Thursday morning during the ritual known as "stoning the devil" in the tent city of Mina, about 2 miles from Mecca, Islam's holiest city.

• On today's Kagro in the Morning show, we allow WaPo to reignite the Bernie & BLM flame. Joan McCarter reminds us the shutdown looms, and plugs Saturday's Daily Kos Connects event! Armando stops by for a quick 40 min. comment on BLM, Ben Carson & more.
  
  Find us on iTunes | Find us on Stitcher | RSS | Donate to support the show!
• So here's a new and disturbing statistic: In a recent Survey USA poll Donald Trump not only beat out Democratic nominees Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, and Al Gore, but he receivedmore than 20 percent support from African-Americansin every matchup. “Donald Trump has a certain swagger about him that I think registers with people. Especially if he is talking about trying to make government work for the people,” said Donald E. Scoggins, a lifelong Republican and president of the Republicans for Black Empowerment. “I think Trump’s support is primarily personality driven.” We've just decided that this is a case of black people trolling, because, seriously? It's Trump. Team Blackness also discussed a rabbi's request that Jews rescind their whiteness, a man who embezzled $8.7 million and then lived on the Appalachian trail, and David Cameron's "bae of pigs" controversy.
  
  

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As of September 24, 872 Americans have been killed by police in 2015. A mere 1.3 percent of those officers have been charged in the deaths, ranging from manslaughter to murder. As wild as it sounds, the 12 officers who've been charged so far in 2015 represent the single largest number of officers charged in any year over the past ten years.

According to The Wall Street Journal, more police officers in America have been prosecuted over fatal on-duty shootings in 2015 than in any year going back a decade.

Citing research by Bowling Green State University criminologist Philip M. Stinson, the Journal reports that 12 officers have been charged with manslaughter or murder for on-duty shooting deaths in 2015 so far, more than twice the annual average of five officers a year since 2005.

This, on its face, absolutely feels like progress. In some ways, it is. More than any year in recent memory, the public is demanding that police officers be held accountable for police brutality, so having more officers charged this year than any recent year (with more than 3 months still remaining) is not coincidental.

However, what we really have here is something that doesn't merit much celebration.

Not one single officer who has been charged with manslaughter or murder in 2015 has actually been convicted. Not one. While a few convictions are still up in the air, we are actually left with the very real possibility that not a single officer will be convicted. It has happened hundreds of times before, in some of the most egregious cases imaginable.

Between prosecutors who don't truly want convictions of police officers and laws which seem to protect police at all costs, it's a bit futile to get your hopes up.

Carly Fiorina is developing a nasty little habit of embellishing lying about nearly everything.

Another fact-turned-fiction turn of events came Sunday when Fiorina insisted that an SEC investigation had "proved" she had no knowledge of Hewlett-Packard's extensive printer sales in Iran, which were illegal, when she led the company from 1999 to 2005.

“In fact, the SEC investigation proved that neither I nor anyone else in management knew about it…” she insisted, adding,  “...when the company discovered this three years after I left, they cut off all ties. The SEC investigated very thoroughly and concluded that no one in management was aware.”  

Turns out that "investigation" never happened. Rather, the SEC inquired about HP's printer sales in Iran, HP execs responded, and the SEC ultimately didn't open an investigation, reports Eric Schmeltzer:

There is no record of the Enforcement Division -- the only division that performs investigations -- taking up the matter. Thus, no investigation was performed.

In fact, her 2010 Senate campaign team seemed a little more burdened by the truth in its framing of the issue.

"The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission inquired about the matter, but the company has never been found in violation of U.S. trade embargoes."

The notion that HP ended up dominating 41 percent of Iran's printer market by 2007 and Fiorina allegedly had no knowledge of that is beyond suspect. (A 2003 press release from the foreign subsidiary that sold the printers in Iran, Redington Gulf, stated that its relationship with HP had begun in 1997 to concentrate on "one market—Iran.")  But in her Sunday interview with Chris Wallace, Fiorina actually used the SEC "investigation" as a deflection tactic, failing to ever answer directly whether she had any knowledge of the sales to Iran. I'd like to hear that question asked again and again until she actually answers it ... without lying.

For too many years, the Catholic teachings that have gotten the most attention in the United States have been limited to sex and related topics. The broader sweep of Catholic teaching has continued to include much more, such as the rights of workers and opposition to the death penalty, but it's been easy for Republicans to ignore while loudly calling out the issues on which they agreed with the church. Pope Francis has changed that balance, to the discomfort of Republicans, and Thursday he took his message straight to Congress.

Republicans still got lines they liked—or thought they did—such as "The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development." But of course they weren't quite so enthusiastic about the "at every stage" part; Francis continued:

This conviction has led me, from the beginning of my ministry, to advocate at different levels for the global abolition of the death penalty. I am convinced that this way is the best, since every life is sacred, every human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes.

That wasn't the only part of the speech bound to give congressional Republicans heartburn, in the politest and most elegant way possible. On inequality and the economy:

If politics must truly be at the service of the human person, it follows that it cannot be a slave to the economy and finance. Politics is, instead, an expression of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one the greatest common good: that of a community which sacrifices particular interests in order to share, in justice and peace, its goods, its interests, its social life. I do not underestimate the difficulty that this involves, but I encourage you in this effort.

"It cannot be a slave to the economy and finance." Oof. On immigration and the refugee crisis:

Our world is facing a refugee crisis of a magnitude not seen since the Second World War. This presents us with great challenges and many hard decisions. On this continent, too, thousands of persons are led to travel north in search of a better life for themselves and for their loved ones, in search of greater opportunities. Is this not what we want for our own children? We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation. To respond in a way which is always humane, just and fraternal. We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays: to discard whatever proves troublesome.

"Common temptation" ... or happily embraced policy? On poverty:

How much has been done in these first years of the third millennium to raise people out of extreme poverty! I know that you share my conviction that much more still needs to be done, and that in times of crisis and economic hardship a spirit of global solidarity must not be lost. At the same time I would encourage you to keep in mind all those people around us who are trapped in a cycle of poverty. They too need to be given hope. The fight against poverty and hunger must be fought constantly and on many fronts, especially in its causes.

But in this country, one of our political parties wants the minimum wage at a poverty level—when it's not outright opposing any minimum wage—and seeks to cut food stamps and other important pieces of the safety net. On climate change and inequality:

n Laudato Si’, I call for a courageous and responsible effort to "redirect our steps" (ibid., 61), and to avert the most serious effects of the environmental deterioration caused by human activity. I am convinced that we can make a difference and I have no doubt that the United States – and this Congress – have an important role to play. Now is the time for courageous actions and strategies, aimed at implementing a "culture of care" (ibid., 231) and "an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature" (ibid., 139).

Pope Francis is no liberal, but he's forcing Americans to pay attention to issues his recent predecessors had allowed to take a back seat. And you could see on their faces how uncomfortable that was for congressional Republicans.

David Daleiden and his "Center for Medical Progress" want to keep it secret how they secretly filmed and deceptively edited videos attacking Planned Parenthood over legal fetal tissue donation practices, but the courts are not going along with that secrecy agenda. A panel from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said the CMP would have to participate in discovery, which would mean turning over a lot of information to the National Abortion Federation in one case, and:

In a separate case against CMP brought by StemExpress, the tissue procurement company featured in some of Daleiden's videos, a judge in the Los Angeles Superior Court said Tuesday that Daleiden has to turn over documents in that case as well.

The ruling allows StemExpress — which worked with Planned Parenthood clinics before becoming embroiled by the scandal — to obtain documents, communications and certain unedited footage from the Center for Medical Progress.

The CMP can appeal the 9th Circuit decision to the Supreme Court, but it looks likely that one way or another, we'll be finding out a lot more of what went on behind the scenes as these James O'Keefe wannabes built their deception and teed up a widespread attack on Planned Parenthood by congressional Republicans, Republican presidential candidates, and Republican governors.

House Democrats are playing their cards close to their chests in the latest soap opera in the Republican conference. Overthrow Speaker Boehner or don't, they are telling Republicans because it's their problem. In the meantime, however, maybe they ought to try governing.

"It's not our responsibility to try to solve their divisions," Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters in the Capitol on Wednesday.

Hoyer, the minority whip, said Democratic leaders have had no formal discussions on how they'd approach a potential coup to topple Boehner, as some conservatives are threatening. He suggested the Democrats would steer clear of the issue until forced to do otherwise.

"We'll have to respond to them when they manifest themselves in a way that it makes it necessary for us to respond," he said. "And we'll do that." […]

"We don't know what the Republicans are going to do, and our experience has been that the Republicans are somewhat unpredictable," he said.

"The thing you can usually predict is that they'll create chaos in some fashion or another."

Hoyer did, however, extend a little help to Boehner. Sort of. He said that House Democrats would likely be happy to vote for a stop-gap funding bill at current levels to avoid a shutdown, depending on what the Senate, which is acting first, puts in the bill. "We have been clear that we want to keep the government open," he told reporters. "Under the circumstances, it might [get] our support, but I don't want to say that until I see what the Senate does."

Whether Boehner considers that help, though, is the big question. If he passes a "clean" funding bill as Democrats are demanding and with Democratic votes, then he's probably going to be subjected to a coup attempt. If he acquiesces to the hard-liners in his conference, and goes for the shutdown, he will inevitably have to capitulate to President Obama and Democrats soon thereafter to avoid total disaster for the party. Either way, Boehner is screwed as speaker. He might as well accept that and actually do what's right for the country.

Sign if you agree: Democrats must stand strong. No cuts to Planned Parenthood. No government shutdowns.

The knives are out, the sharks are circling, reporters and establishment Republicans everywhere are licking their lips at the thought ... is Donald Trump's campaign finally stalling? The evidence: He appeared before some partly empty rooms in South Carolina, seeming defensive and less confident than usual. And while he's still leading in the polls, his numbers may be leveling off or dropping slightly:

The latest national Quinnipiac University survey released Thursday provided some fuel to wishful rivals. Trump still leads among registered Republican voters with 25 percent, statistically unchanged from last month's Quinnipiac survey that put him at 28 percent. Yet it's the second major national poll this week showing a slight decrease from last month — Trump experienced an 8-point drop in the CNN/ORC survey released Sunday. (A Fox poll released Wednesday evening also showed Trump with relatively stalled momentum, and a Bloomberg survey of the GOP field showed Trump in a holding pattern at 21 percent).

The thing is, those polls all still do show him leading by healthy margins. So while Trump may be entering a downturn, he may also just have hit a ceiling—that's higher than any of his competitors have reached. It's hard to know, especially with a media that's  been predicting his imminent fall since he first started rising in the polls and a Republican establishment that wants to make it happen. Trump and Fox News are on the outs again, and recent primary drop-out Scott Walker is actively organizing against Trump, attributing his decision to leave the race to the feeling that it would help bring Trump down, and arguing that other trailing candidates should do the same. He told donors that he's "challenging others in this race to consider making this decision because I believe in the end if we narrow the field to just a few quality, positive alternatives to the frontrunner, it's not only good for the party it's good for the country." (This is also a great way for Walker to suck up to top Republican donors and any eventual non-Trump nominee.)

Trump may be decisively falling. He may be in a brief slump that could provide Walker, Republican donors, the other candidates, and the media a chance to bring him down ... or from which he could recover as quickly as he can find a new outrageous way to hit the sweet spot of the Republican base. But considering that political reporters have been predicting his crash all along, it's hard to trust their assessments this time around.

The Pope goes to Congress, and is spending a great deal of time telling the Congress to stop all the infighting and actually do something to help people. Let's hope they listen.

Watch live here.

7:24 AM PT: Hmmm.... McConnell didn't clap when asked for "respect for our differences."

7:25 AM PT: Now he's speaking of Martin Luther King and his dream. "That dream continues to inspire us all. I am happy that America continues to be, for many, a land of "dreams". Dreams which lead to action, to participation, to commitment. Dreams which awaken what is deepest and truest in the life of a people."

7:29 AM PT: Now a bit of a lesson about immigration: "In recent centuries, millions of people came to this land to pursue their dream of building a future in freedom. We, the people of this continent, are not fearful of foreigners, because most of us were once foreigners." He reminds them that he is the son of immigrants, and that pretty much everybody in the room can say the same. He perhaps speaks a bit obliquely about the controversy over the canonization of Junipero Serra, recognizing that the "the rights of those who were here long before us were not always respected."

7:31 AM PT: He is tying the refugee crisis in Europe to immigration: "On this continent, too, thousands of persons are led to travel north in search of a better life for themselves and for their loved ones, in search of greater opportunities. Is this not what we want for our own children?" We must "view them as persons, see their faces, listen to their stories" and try to "respond as best we can" to them, "in a way which is always humane, just and fraternal." He cites the Golden Rule, and gets a standing ovation. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

7:35 AM PT: "In a word, if we want security, let us give security; if we want life, let us give life; if we want opportunities, let us provide opportunities." He is now moving  to the death penalty and abortion. "The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development." He says that bishops in the United States "renewed their call for the abolition of the death penalty. Not only do I support them, but I also offer encouragement to all those who are convinced that a just and necessary punishment must never exclude the dimension of hope and the goal of rehabilitation." Too bad Scalia and Alito are missing this.

7:39 AM PT: He now speaks about Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker Movement and her efforts for social justice. The "encourage[s] you to keep in mind all those people around us who are trapped in a cycle of poverty." They must also be given hope. He goes on to say "that part of this great effort is the creation and distribution of wealth."

7:42 AM PT: The common good also must include the Earth, he says. He cites his encylical, "We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all." Definitely one side in the chamber did not like that one, did not applaud that. Democrats rise to their feet for when he calls for a "courageous and responsible effort to redirect our steps, and to avert the most serious effects of the environmental deterioration caused by human activity." Use technology, he says, and put it "at the service of another type of progress, one which is healthier, more human, more social, more integral."

7:47 AM PT: Now he talks about Cistercian monk Thomas Merton, "a source of spiritual inspiration and a guide for many people [...] a man of dialogue, a promoter of peace between peoples and religions." He wants to extend this dialogue, he says, "to recognize the efforts made in recent months to help overcome historic differences linked to painful episodes of the past," presumably referring to the Iran nuclear deal. Remember that handshake reserved for John Kerry? "When countries which have been at odds resume the path of dialogue – a dialogue which may have been interrupted for the most legitimate of reasons – new opportunities open up for all. This has required, and requires, courage and daring, which is not the same as irresponsibility."

7:49 AM PT: "Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood. In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade."

7:54 AM PT: Now he's moving on to the "family," which is "threatened perhaps as never before from within and without." Now's the marriage equality bit: "Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family. I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the beauty of family life." That's as close as he's going to get, turning now to "the young," and "a future filled with countless possibilities beckons, yet so many others seem disoriented and aimless, trapped in a hopeless maze of violence, abuse and despair." He says that " we live in a culture which pressures young people not to start a family, because they lack possibilities for the future. Yet this same culture presents others with so many options that they too are dissuaded from starting a family." And once again returns to his theme: "A nation can be considered great when it defends liberty as Lincoln did, when it fosters a culture which enables people to "dream" of full rights for all their brothers and sisters, as Martin Luther King sought to do; when it strives for justice and the cause of the oppressed, as Dorothy Day did by her tireless work, the fruit of a faith which becomes dialogue and sows peace in the contemplative style of Thomas Merton."

7:55 AM PT: He concludes: "It is my desire that this spirit continue to develop and grow, so that as many young people as possible can inherit and dwell in a land which has inspired so many people to dream." And, of course, "God bless America."