We know that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has rejected the new compromise policy on birth control access, and that the Republican leadership agrees with them. But does that mean they have a chance to shift policy legislatively? The chances of that took a severe blow today, when Maine Republican Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins came out in favor of the Obama Administration’s new rules.

The Obama budget is proposing to tax dividends for high-income taxpayers as ordinary income. This is not a change on capital gains, it’s on dividends, the money earned through corporate payouts of profits to shareholders. The capital gains tax rate would rise to 20% from 15% under the Obama proposal, consistent with prior years.

The FY 2013 budget that the Administration will release today is, in the long run, a meaningless document in substantive terms, so I don’t want to spend that much time on it. But I was a little surprised with the pushback I received about my assessment that it reflects a shift in tone rather than policy. It’s a simple fact that the Administration has wanted a deficit deal for some time, and that this budget will build in a deficit deal. They’re going about it in a smarter way with a higher bid in the negotiations.

The jobs programs and higher taxes on the wealthy are at the top of the priority list. But all of the elements that the Administration has sought from the beginning of their term – a total of $4 trillion in deficit reduction, the “lower the rate, broaden the base” perspective on corporate taxes, an extension of the Bush tax cuts for 98% of the population, still remain in this document. We’re really talking about tone.

Now that the frothmentum is building for Mr. Sad Sweater Vest and his inspiring message that a solid defeat is preferable to a hollow victory, it’s worth asking whether the GOP arrived at this place all by itself.

Political activists were rightfully outraged when the Bush administration fought tooth-and-nail to keep the minutes of Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force secret. Now, aside from the good people at SACE, who else is working to uncloak an equally secretive–and equally offensive–Obama energy deal?

Catholic bishops had a mixed reaction to President Obama’s new plan for birth control access, which preserves universal, cost-free access and uses a Hawaii-type compromise to leave the religiously affiliated institutions out of the exchange of services between an insurance company and the employee.

For months the Obama administration has been pushing for a foreclosure fraud settlement that would be very favorable for the big banks. Obama finally got the deal he has long wanted today, Thursday February 9th. It was reported that a deal had been reached last night, February 8th.

This means on Tuesday February 7th, it was must have been know to people in the Obama administration that a foreclosure fraud deal had already been reached or would reached in the next few days.

If you or anyone you know have been affected by foreclosure fraud, we want you to share your thoughts on the settlement with us. Unlike some who laid ground cover for this carnage by hailing Schneiderman a hero but remain silent today, we will not allow this deal — and what it means to the victims of foreclosure fraud — to be buried under a mountain of pro-settlement propaganda.

A new poll shows that the lack of forceful opposition to Administration counter-terrorism policies, especially from Congressional Democrats, has led to them becoming broadly popular. This is true even for controversial policies like the continued presence of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, or drone strikes abroad.