Adelson to give Kochs another $10 million to defeat Obama and Democrats

Sheldon Adelson is exercising his 'freedom of speech' in unprecedented fashion (Vivek Prakash/Reuters) Savor the freedom of speech:

Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson is giving $10 million to the 2012 election efforts of the Koch brothers, a Republican Party insider in Nevada confirms.

This brings Adelson's total 2012 spending to a mind-numbing $46.5 million: $16.5 million went to Newt Gingrich's Super PAC (some of that was donated by his wife), $10 million is going to Mitt Romney's Super PAC, $10 million is going to Karl Rove's Crossroads group, and now another $10 million is going to the Koch Brothers.

But while spending nearly $50 million might seem like a lot, Adelson isn't done trying to buy the election for Mitt Romney and the Republicans: He's said the amount he expects to spend is "limitless" and could easily exceed $100 million. As absurd as that figure sounds, Adelson isn't bluffing: He's one of the 15 richest people in the world and could easily spend $1 billion if he wanted to. And the only people that happier about that news than Mitt Romney are the media consultants who will take their 15 percent commission on the ads his millions buy.

This week in the War on Voting: Because you just can't have enough Herman Cain

Presented without comment, because I still haven't picked up and reassembled all the pieces of my skull.

Ok, maybe a little bit of comment. First, yes, that's that Ken Blackwell in the video with Cain. And, second, this:

Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R): "[...] Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done."

Moving on, you know all about the Texas GOP's official party platform and it's disdain for critical thinking. But did you also know it is the official position of the Republican Party of Texas that the Voting Rights Act be overturned? It's one of their central planks.

"We urge that the Voter Rights Act of 1965 codified and updated in 1973 be repealed and not reauthorized," the platform reads.

Under a provision of the Voting Rights Act, certain jurisdictions must obtain permission from the federal government'called "preclearance"'before they change their voting rules. The rule was put in place in jurisdictions with a history of voter disenfranchisement.

You might remember that the Department of Justice used Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, the provision referred to above, to block the state from implementing its new voter ID law because the law would disproportionately harm Latinos. The state, in turn, has sued the federal government along with South Carolina, in another prong in its effort to do away with this important civil and voting rights protection.

This is apparently the state's response to it's rapidly increasing, and Democratic-leaning, Latino population. Since Texas Republicans won't evolve politically, their only hope of survival is making sure only Republicans get to vote. It's a simple story, played out across the country this year.

And for more of that story for the week, make the jump below the fold.

So you are sick of the tyranny and want to move to Canada. A guide.

My poor sad wingnut friends. I hear you. I understand. When you elected George W. Bush to a second term in office, I had serious discussions with my fiance, now my husband, that the time may have come to leave these shores. We entertained both the Netherlands and Canada. Now I can understand that the Netherlands would be completely out of the question for you. Fox News has made sure you hate the Netherlands nearly as much as abortion. And they speak Dutch. It's hard. It's only natural that you would gravitate towards Canada. It is still located in North America so it has the word America in there for you. It isn't primarily brown (ewwww). You know it's big and Americans like big. And they speak English, even if they do pronounce certain words like about kind of funny and say eh a lot. Some of them actually speak French which may sound like a bad thing at first glance, but it will give you new people to loathe. Yay.

(Continue reading below the fold)

The mandates that are and the massive tax increase that isn't

In February 2009, President Obama delivered what Steve Benen rightly described as the largest two-year tax cut in American history. Nevertheless, the New York Times asked in the run-up to the 2010 midterms, "What if a president cut Americans' income taxes by $116 billion and nobody noticed?" What happened, of course, was the Democrats' drubbing that November.

Now Republicans are hoping to repeat history this fall, this time by pretending that the Affordable Care Act upheld by the Supreme Court Thursday is a "massive tax increase" on American families. As it turns out, the penalty for failing to obtain health insurance beginning in 2014 will impact four million people, or less than two percent of the U.S. population. To put that figure in context, 40 times as many Americans pay the mandated taxes for the very popular Social Security and Medicare programs.

Mitt Romney: Opportunity in America means people 'get as much education as they can afford'

At a campaign speech in Virginia on Wednesday, Mitt Romney took a 20-second break from attacking President Obama to lay out this stirring vision of opportunity in America:

I want to make sure that we keep America a place of opportunity where everyone has a fair shot, they get as much education as they can afford and with their time they're able to get and if they have a willingness to work hard and the right values they ought to be able to provide for their family and have a shot at realizing their dreams.

"As much education as they can afford." If you can't afford college tuition'something Romney himself made more difficult for many in Massachusetts during his time as the state's governor'that should, in Romney's view, define the opportunities available to you. That's a severely harsh vision in an economy in which high school graduates face high unemployment and low wages; in other words, in which a willingness to work hard and the right values (whatever those may be) are not enough to provide for your family and have a shot at realizing your dreams.

Even when he's seeking to present America as a shining city upon a hill, Mitt Romney's vision is entirely bounded by wealth. Even when he dreams, he doesn't dream about opportunity for all, just for those who can afford to buy it.

Open thread: Health care, an Obama victory and progressive values

What's coming up on Sunday Kos ...

• Beyond 2012 - What the Future Holds for Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown, by Arjun Jaikumar
• About those health care polls..., by DemFromCT
• Are national polls understating President Obama's prospects for victory, by Steve Singiser
• Why Obama? To fight for our progressive Values, by Armando
• A beautiful morning at the 2012 SF Pride Parade, by Laurence Lewis
• Slippin' into whiteness: Melungeons and other "almost white" groups, by Denise Oliver Velez
• Turning the tide on corporate education, by Dante Atkins

President Obama, the Colorado wildfires and 'what makes us Americans'

President Obama'against the backdrop of the devastating wildfires in Colorado'uses his weekly address to thank the firefighters and to remind all of us "what makes us Americans."

... in addition to saying thank you to these firefighters, is to let them know that all of America has their back. One of the things that happens, whether it's a fire here in Colorado, or a tornado in Alabama or Missouri, or a flood or a hurricane in Florida, one of the things that happens here in America is when we see our fellow citizens in trouble and having difficulty, we come together as one American family, as one community. And you see that spirit and you see that strength here in Colorado Springs, where people are working together, promising each other to rebuild. We've got to make sure that we are there with them every step of the way, even after this fire is put out.

And he asks all Americans to keep the people of Colorado in their thoughts.

So, America, I hope you guys remember the folks during these times of need. I know this is a little bit unusual -- we don't usually do weekly addresses like this, but I thought it was a good opportunity for us to actually focus attention on a problem that's going on here in Colorado Springs. We never know when it might be our community that's threatened, and it's important that we're there for them.

(Complete transcript below the fold)

House Republicans petition Supreme Court to review Defense of Marriage Act

It looks like the still-steaming House Republicans are already thinking of ways for the Supreme Court to redeem themselves in the eyes of movement conservatism. What better way than to get into another high-profile spat between themselves and the administration?

The Republican-led House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group today mailed its petition to the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to review the May 31 ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit that the federal definition of marriage contained in the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional.

The First Circuit arguments against the act can be found here. John Boehner and the other House Republicans have been persistent in their attempts to help steer this through the courts, presumably because they're focused on all the jobs to be created in passing prejudicial laws against gay people. Because they're focused on jobs, right?

Romney ad shows off his tech-savvy economic plan with computers introduced during Bush's first term

So I was looking through Mitt Romney's recent ad about what he'd do on his first day in office when I came across this scene:

Looks pretty cutting edge, right? A room full of flat panel all-in-one computers, probably used for training or something like that. Even better, they're all iMacs, and Apple is exactly the kind of company Mitt Romney wants to associate himself with: young, hip and definitely not fuddy duddy.

There's only one problem. The iMac that Romneyland featured is this one:

And that iMac was first introduced nearly a decade ago, in 2004'during George W. Bush's first term. It was last updated in 2006. That's probably not exactly the image Mitt Romney is going for ... but it is a perfect symbol for his backward-looking campaign.

Saturday hate mail-a-palooza: Did Chief Justice Roberts do something this week?

Time to beef up security, dude. (Reuters) They don't like Chief Justice John Roberts anymore.

All the fun, below the fold!

Campaign video goes on offense: Obamacare is about helping real people

You know what the most satisfying thing is about the Supreme Court ruling upholding Obamacare? Thinking about all the people who will live healthier, longer and more secure lives because of it. And that's exactly the story this new video from the Obama campaign tells:

Beyond all the statistics, beyond all the political battles and legal arguments, beyond the economic theory, there are people and their lives. And at its heart, that's what Obamacare is all about.