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What does last night's special in Arizona's 8th tell us about November?
Ron Barber supporters help get out the vote in the Arizona 8th Congressional District special election on June 12, 2012.
Voters in Arizona's 8th congressional district chose Democrat Ron Barber to replace Gabby Giffords, beating Republican Jesse Kelly 52-46. What, if anything, does this mean?
A SIX-POINT VICTORY IN A LEAN-GOP DISTRICT
This race was conducted in Gifford's old district, which has been redrawn in reapportionment. The old district had a seven-point GOP voter registration advantage. George W. Bush won it with 54 percent of the vote in 2004, while John McCain won it with 52 percent in 2008 (though aided by his hometown status). In 2010, Jan Brewer got 55 percent of the vote, while Giffords couldn't muster 50 percent that year (she won with 49 percent in a multi-candidate field).
Barber faces a decidedly easier general election battle this November in the newly drawn district. Not only is it five points more Democratic, but Barber overperformed in the parts of the district he keeps this November. His reelection looks safe.
Meanwhile, there are 84 incumbent Republicans in seats more Democratic than this one.
MONEY WASN'T EVERYTHING
Republicans: $1.4 million
NRCC: $878K
Crossroads: $199K
AZ GOP Party: $126K
Citizens United VF: $100:
American Action Network: $97K
FreedomWorks: $30K
Democrats: $922K
House Majority PAC: $462K
DCCC: $460K
Lesson? They'll outspend us. It's what they'll do. They can't win on ideology or the issues, so they'll try to buy elections. As long as we can keep it close and have enough money to get our message out, we can compete and win. Being outspent 3-2? Okay. Being outspent 10 or 20-1 (like in Wisconsin)? That would be a problem.
SPEAKING OF MESSAGES ...
Democratic ads hit the Republican hard for his support of the Ryan budget that would privatize Social Security and destroy Medicare.
Republicans ran the typical scaremongering over Obamacare, gas prices and evil Nancy Pelosi:
Despite the fact that they had more money to push their message, we only needed enough money to make sure voters heard ours. The election results make clear which message won.
ARIZONA!
For those looking for signs that Arizona will be a battleground in 2012, this certainly points in that direction. Remember, this was a 52-46 McCain district. Barber won it by exactly the same margin—a 12-point shift. President Barack Obama lost the state by just nine points in 2008 (and Mitt Romney won't have hometown advantages). You can do the math.
http://www.dailykos.com/blog/Baja%20Arizona%20Kossaks/
The only winner in the War of 1812 was Tchaikovsky. .. Solomon Short
hi boys and girls
i miss you lots
Gov. Don Siegelman Facing 20 Years, Obama Pushes for Long Sentence
Andrew Krieg reports that the Supreme Court denied Don Siegelman's appeal.
Now Siegelman faces serving a 20 year sentence, one that Obama and DOJ Eric Holder pushed for, beyond the 7 years he was originally sentenced to serve.
Krieg writes at OpEdNews.com:
In 2009, the Obama Justice Department requested that Fuller sentence Siegelman to 20 more years in prison when his appeals were concluded. Presumably, but not certainly, some sense of shame at DOJ as well as cost-benefit recognition of the enormous costs of prosecution and imprisonment will encourage Obama officials to reduce that request. On June 7, my weekly radio show MTL Washington Update is scheduled to host Montgomery Independent Editor and Publisher Bob Martin, among other guests, to discuss next steps with co-host Scott Draughon and me. The show is June 7 at noon (EDT), and available nationally. Click here to listen to the interview live nationwide on the MTL radio network or by archive.
Krieg says:
The new administration stood shoulder-to-shoulder with its Bush predecessors in continuing the frame-up and cover-up. This was part of a "look forward, not backward" mantra that President Obama articulated most famously in avoiding accountability for Bush-era torture and cover-up. But events make clear that the cover-ups obviously applied also to Bush political prosecutions...
Siegelman, whose Karl Rove-inspired prosecution helped gut Alabama's once-competitive Democratic Party, served nearly a year of his term before release on bond when whistleblowers and legal experts helped show in 2007 and 2008 that he had been targeted for political reasons. As trial judge, Fuller paved the way for conviction with innumerable pro-prosecution rulings that ignored clear-cut legal irregularities plus allegations of monumental scandal.The prominent, blunt-speaking Alabama businessman Luther "Stan" Pate has said his fellow Republicans clearly framed Siegelman. But Fuller, Rove and the vast bulk of other politicians and judges have denied wrongdoing or irregularities.
What am I not getting here? My understanding of the political process, post-high school text book, is that you have two sides lined up against each other - the two party system - and each side takes care of its own. If the people on either sides see themselves being thrown to the wolves, chaos results. People will not invest lifetimes working their hearts out for the party.
Anyone who reads me much knows I am not happy with the Democratic Party, but if there is a Democrat I always liked, it's Don Siegelman.
I thought it was beyond clear that Siegelman's prosecution was political, masterminded by Karl Rove. Would Republicans join in the persecution of one of their own? Or is it just a Democrat thing?
Maybe the better questions are: Does anyone remember who Don Siegelman is, or what he did for this crew? Where is the heart? Is that all there is, my friend?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/05/1097552/-Gov-Don-Siegelman-Facing-20-Years-Obama-Pushes-for-Long-Sentence
It's GREAT to hear from you here Tea.. ;) ! ... AND WE have MISSED You! .......with
.......... all of our 'dirty rotten hipee' .. hearts ... ;)
Keep doing what you're doing ..It's OBVIOUS that it's the RIGHT thing !
.......
hey friends just a quick drive by
1st posts in over 3 months
getting stronger day by day
i miss everyone of you
The Walker Deficit
Scott Walker likes to say that he eliminated Wisconsin's budget deficit,
and he did it without raising taxes. He claims the budget is “balanced."
We know that’s a lie.
Walker’s budget deficit still exists – it was transferred to us, the middle class, the working poor, and those struggling to make it. We’ve been sacrificing our entire lives, but we bore the burden of Walker's Deficit with cuts to education, cuts to healthcare, and cuts to local services. Walker made deep cuts to our quality of life while big corporations and the wealthy got tax breaks and the working class got tax increases.
The deficit didn’t disappear...it was hidden in the suffering of real people - everyday
Wisconsin people - who don’t have powerful bankers and corporate big shots for friends.
[some more of the photos only]
http://thewalkerdeficit.tumblr.com/
People power vs billionaire bucks .. fascinating times in America .. one W is enough for Wisconsin ..
More of this please__Millions in TV ads, but no poll movement for Scott Walker
By Greg Sargent Posted at 05:30 PM ET, 05/02/2012
A new Marquette Law School poll that’s generating lots of chatter today finds that Scott Walker and his most likely recall opponent, Tom Barrett, are in a dead heat, with Barrett edging Walker by 47-46 among registered Wisconsin voters.
The really important finding here, however, is that Walker’s approval rating, and his head to head numbers with Barrett, have not changed in months — if anything, they’re going down. And this is in spite of the fact that Walker and his allies have vastly outspent rivals in TV ads.
Charles Franklin, a political scientist and expert in Wisconsin politics who directs the Marquette poll, sends over some numbers.
In January, Walker’s job approval was 51 percent; in March, it was 50 percent; and this month, it's 47 percent.
In January, Walker was leading Barrett 50-44; in March, 47-45; and this month, he trails 46-47. (Among likely voters, Walker leads by a point; all of these findings suggest a mostly unchanging dead heat.)
“There’s been a great deal of advertising in the state, especially from the Walker campaign and Republican supporters, and we’ve seen virtually no movement in the Walker numbers,” Franklin tells me.
What’s particularly interesting here is that just yesterday, Walker announced he’d raised a staggering $13 million in three months for the recall fight. But even though he’s likely to outspend his Dem opponent in the home stretch, it’s unclear how much that will matter, because the numbers suggest ads are unlikely to move the needle much going forward.
This means the race is all going to come down to turnout — the one area where Dems and unions can match Walker in resources and organization, perhaps neutralizing Walker’s ad spending advantage, Franklin says.
“It won’t take much in voter turnout to tip the race either way,” Franklin says. “You can spend an awful lot of money on advertising and it would be unlikely to change many minds. But the advantages that Democrats and unions have traditionally had in the ground game is certainly an area where they can match Walker’s organization at the very least.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/millions-in-tv-ads-but-no-poll-movement-for-scott-walker/2012/05/02/gIQA7vaJxT_blog.html?hpid=z2
This is GOING to be HARD..real hard! ...Go WISCONSIN
You're doing so damn good, Wisconsin, with all of the 'koch' money pouring in, big ole christie/romney and all the other fascists coming into your town hasn't really bought you much now, Has it asshole, Scot WALKER?
Forward.
Slow Jam The News with Barack Obama: Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
blue sky
darker days on the ground .. bits of ..
We agree. The evidence shows that the economy did not "nose dive" for at least a year after the Democrats took control of Congress, and experts of various ideological backgrounds agree that long-term trends in the housing and energy markets played a bigger role in directly causing the recession. While what happens in Washington can certainly influence the economy, it is only one of many factors. We believe it is the height of partisan wishful thinking to imply that one party's accession to power in Congress is to blame for a major recession. Pants on Fire!
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/mar/15/virginia-foxx/foxx-blames-recession-democratic-congressional-tak/
and
You may have thought the Founding Fathers, who strongly believed in low taxes, small government, and checks
andbalances to keep politicians from gaining too much power helped make America a great nation
LOLOL .... yeah .. .just like 'Small Government' Reagan did ... lmao!
Growth In Government Spending Under President Obama Slower Than During Bush, Reagan Administrations
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=74238519
one more ..
Government today, however, on both sides of the Atlantic, is a matter of making do with less. For political, not economic, reasons, Cameron has chosen not to reduce the 50 percent income tax rate paid by the highest earners even though evidence suggests it is likely costing the Treasury money. Instead, he is slowly cutting corporate taxes and, more significantly, eliminating income taxes on low-paid workers altogether. Many within his own party would like to see a more aggressive, supply-side approach to boost growth. .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=73211585
more .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=74342824
How John Roberts Could Uphold ‘Obamacare’
Sahil Kapur April 9, 2012, 6:05 AM 786
In his written opinion on a recent case regarding the constitutionality of suspicionless, forced strip searches of inmates, U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts pointed at one way he could come down on the side of upholding President Obama’s health care law and assuage libertarian fears of federal over-reach, some court-watchers speculate.
The constitutional questions in Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders of County of Burlington are different than those in the health care case. But experts see a potential connection in the broader philosophical point Roberts made in his concurring opinion. .. http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/10-945.pdf
Last week the Supreme Court held 5-4 that prisons may strip-search inmates, even those who are jailed for minor infractions, arguing that security concerns trump privacy in such an environment. Roberts wrote a short aside emphasizing that the court may later place limits to that power when necessary. The caveat suggests that Roberts is concerned about tarnishing his court’s legacy by issuing opinions that reflect poorly on his tenure as chief justice in retrospect. And it highlights the fact that future courts can circumscribe federal powers — including the one at stake in the fight over “Obamacare.”
“The Court makes a persuasive case for the general applicability of the rule it announces,” Roberts concluded. “The Court is nonetheless wise to leave open the possibility of exceptions, to ensure that we ‘not embarrass the future.’”
The last three words stuck out to Pulitzer Prize-winning court watcher Linda Greenhouse, who wondered in the New York Times .. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/04/embarrass-the-future .. whether something deeper might be at play.
“‘Embarrass the future’? The quote, from a 1944 opinion by Justice Felix Frankfurter .. http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/322/292/case.html .. in a tax case, is usually offered to mean that the court shouldn’t encumber itself by declaring solutions to problems that have yet to emerge,” she wrote. “Maybe that’s all the chief justice meant. But John Roberts is both a careful prose stylist and a man acutely conscious of his and the court’s place in history. There are so many other ways of expressing a minimalist impulse than this unconventional use of the word ‘embarrass’ that I have to wonder whether he didn’t have in mind the prospect of institutional embarrassment, and not only in the case at hand.”
The notion is counterintuitive because in the strip-search case, Roberts sided with the court’s other four conservatives, as the right wants him to do in the Affordable Care Act case. But it’s his larger point about the nature of jurisprudence, as well as his nod to the court’s reputation and legacy, that has other experts thinking along similar lines.
“Nothing would ‘embarrass the future’ more than a decision in the health care case [to strike down the law] that’s driven by a concern over a far-fetched broccoli mandate,” said Adam Winkler, a constitutional law professor at UCLA. But unlike Greenhouse, Winkler isn’t convinced Roberts worries much about the legitimacy of the court.
Constitutional scholars have overwhelmingly predicted, for two years, that the “Obamacare” individual mandate will be upheld, because it’s consistent with longstanding precedent and judicial deference to Congress on economic laws. Although public disapproval of the mandate could give cover to Roberts’ legacy if he decides to strike it down, Supreme Court historians say that would ultimately paint the five Republican-appointed justices as partisan actors as opposed to neutral arbiters of the law.
The majority decision in Florence, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, held that the plaintiff’s 4th Amendment rights were not being violated. But the idea of rubber-stamping blanket strip-searches troubled Roberts — as well as Justice Samuel Alito — enough that he went out of his way to assert that the court reserves the right to carve out exceptions to this rule. It’s a logic that defines the central struggle of the health care case.
The Obama administration argues that the health care market is unique in critical ways that make this mandate necessary and proper — unlike requiring people to buy broccoli or gym memberships — on the grounds that those who fail to purchase insurance impose direct costs on the system. Roberts’ logic in his Florence opinion could hint at one way of upholding “Obamacare” while affirming that the court may later limit what the government can mandate.
“Clearly the court can hold that the mandate is constitutional without deciding about broccoli, or even saying that the health insurance situation is unique,” Timothy S. Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University, told TPM. “It seemed to me Justice Kennedy was heading that way by the end of the argument.”
It’s too early — and perhaps too speculative — to say this logic will extend to the health care reform law. But an important context to the Florence opinion is that it was issued after the justices cast their initial round of votes on the “Obamacare” case. And with the four liberal-leaning justices all but certain to vouch for its constitutionality, Roberts is uniquely positioned to determine the outcome. A decision is expected by the end of June.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/04/how-john-roberts-could-uphold-obamacare.php?ref=fpa
by Gottalaff!__Gingrich group files for bankruptcy
Oh noes! Newton Leroy Gingrich Inc. has gone all bankrupt on us! Damn you, Tiffany’s! Damn you… everything else!
Via First Read: [ http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/05/11036798-gingrich-group-files-for-bankruptcy ]
Paul Ryan betrays his own views on income inequality
Posted by Ezra Klein at 10:33 AM ET, 04/03/2012 .. 186 Comments
On Thursday, the House of Representatives passed Rep. Paul Ryan’s 2013 budget proposal. The plan’s
pleased author didn’t mince words. “We are bearing witness to history this week,” Ryan said. ..
http://paulryan.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=288039
(Joshua Roberts - Bloomberg) But my thoughts kept returning to something Ryan said five months earlier. The occasion was an October speech .. http://paulryan.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=266160 .. at the conservative Heritage Foundation. Again, Ryan really leaned into the historic moment. His remarks were titled “Saving the American Idea: Rejecting Fear, Envy and the Politics of Division,” and they were Ryan’s bid to make a different sort of history: to be the first national Republican to lay out a coherent theory on income inequality and what needs to be done about it.
“Class is not a fixed designation in this country,” Ryan said. “We are an upwardly mobile society with a lot of movement between income groups. The Treasury Department’s latest study on income mobility in America found that during the 10-year period starting in 1996, roughly half of the taxpayers who started in the bottom 20 percent had moved up to a higher income group by 2005.”
Upward mobility, Ryan said, is the real key to the “American idea.” But that idea was under threat — and not, as so many seemed to think, because of Republicans or low tax rates on billionaires. The real danger, Ryan argued, was coming from the Democrats and the programs they support. It was classic Ryan: A wonkish effort to recast an issue on which Republicans had traditionally been weak as a policy problem that only conservatism could solve. And it didn’t end there.
Two weeks later, in a 15-page report .. http://budget.house.gov/UploadedFiles/CBOInequality.pdf .. entitled “A Deeper Look at Income Inequality,” Ryan made his argument again — but this time with more charts. “Conventional wisdom on government’s role in inequality often has it backwards,” he wrote. “Tax reforms have resulted in a more progressive federal income tax; government transfer payments have become less progressive (due in large part to growing entitlement payments to wealthier seniors).”
Ryan went on to endorse the “the growing bipartisan consensus to target corporate welfare, to income-adjust entitlement programs and to reform the tax code by removing loopholes and lowering barriers to growth.”
Ryan’s presentation was persuasive. He’s right that the growth of social spending on the elderly is crowding out spending on the poor. And he was more convincing because he seemed to admit a hard truth that Republicans often deny: that government programs for the poor are a crucial way of ensuring income mobility, and as they get squeezed, so, too, do the life chances of those born at the base of the income ladder.
But it is difficult to believe that Ryan’s budget was written by the same guy who wrote this paper. Because in Ryan’s budget, Social Security is untouched. The cuts to Medicaid and other health programs for the poor are twice the size of those to Medicare. The cuts to education, to food stamps, to transportation infrastructure and to pretty much everything else besides defense are draconian. As for the tax reform component, it cuts taxes on millionaires by more than $250,000, but it doesn’t name a single loophole or tax break that Ryan and the Republicans would close.
In the end, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that 62 percent of the cuts come from programs for low-income Americans and 37 percent of the tax benefits go to the few Americans earning more than $1 million.
In other words, Ryan’s budget fails even Ryan’s tests for encouraging social mobility: It focuses its cuts on programs for the poor rather than programs for seniors, and it doesn’t eliminate any tax loopholes. (Ryan’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment on this piece.)
As Ryan argued in his October speech, the government does have a role in encouraging social mobility: It helps close the gap between the children of the poor and the children of the rich. Food stamps and other food-assistance programs help with nutrition. Public education and Pell grants help with skills. Medicaid — which covers more than 25 million children — helps with access to health care. But Ryan’s proposed cuts would hit these programs with particular force.
“Ryan’s plan is a privatization of the prerequisites for opportunity,” says Jacob Hacker, author of “Winner-Take-All Politics.” “And so they become the province of people whose parents have made it.”
Bob Greenstein, director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, points to Ryan’s cuts to education: “Lower-income students are more likely to go to public universities and community colleges. But lately, state budget cuts are leading to tuition increases. The Ryan budget would further decimate state budgets, because one of the areas of the budget he hits the hardest is ‘non-security discretionary spending,’ of which 35 to 40 percent of that category is aid to cities and state governments. Normally, you would increase Pell grants to help with this. But he’s slashing Pell grants, too!”
To put it slightly differently, no millionaire’s child will find that Ryan’s budget ends her hopes of a college education. But plenty of lower-income children will. And in the long run, that’s bad for mobility, bad for growth and bad for the country. “If you don’t have a society that allows non-elites to have a serious shot of sharing in economic prosperity, there’s a huge untapped potential for economic growth,” Hacker says.
Five months ago, Ryan knew that. He condemned “empty promises that betray the powerless” and praised “the American idea that justice is done when we level the playing field at the starting line.” But it is hard to see his budget as anything less than a betrayal of the powerless. And as for the American idea that justice is done by leveling the playing field at the starting line? Well, perhaps Ryan could include that in his next budget. Then he would really be making history.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/paul-ryan-betrays-his-own-views-on-income-inequality/2012/04/03/gIQAJCv2sS_blog.html
Obama Recounts GOP Primary’s Greatest Hits In First General Election Speech
Benjy Sarlin & Evan McMorris-Santoro April 3, 2012, 5:51 PM 6566
President Obama delivered a full-throated attack .. http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/04/obama-attacks-romney-republican-party-in-fiery-budget-speech.php .. on Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget Tuesday. He also emptied out his DVR.
There’s been some debate over whether the GOP nominee will be able to move past the long and brutal Republican primary and get a fresh start in the general election. Obama made it clear during his speech to the Associated Press .. http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/04/obama-attacks-romney-republican-party-in-fiery-budget-speech.php .. that the Republican standard bearer isn’t wiping the slate clean on his watch.
While the president hasn’t weighed in much on the primaries to this point, he’s clearly paid close attention. “I’m thinking about just running [the GOP debates] as advertisements,” he joked .. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/03/obama-calls-gop-debates-fodder-for-campaign-ads/ .. last month. On Tuesday, he made good on that promise, re-hashing some of the Republican fight’s greatest hits in his speech as evidence of his opponents’ priorities.
Here’s a rundown of the shout-outs Obama gave to the GOP primary cycle in his speech:
• Raise Your Hand If You Hate Compromise At a debate in August 2011, the GOP candidates were asked whether they would accept a budget deal with Democrats that included $10 in spending cuts to every $1 in new revenue. Digging in their anti-tax heels, every candidate on stage — including likely nominee Mitt Romney — promised to walk away. ..
Chelsea Clinton To Sandra Fluke: 'We Both Have Been Attacked By Rush Limbaugh'
Chelsea Clinton noted a similarity between herself and Sandra Fluke during a panel on Wednesday: both women have been targets of Rush Limbaugh's.
Clinton and Fluke were among a larger group of women speaking about politics at the 92nd Street Y in New York.
"She and I have something in common," Clinton said, according to Buzzfeed. "We both have been attacked by Rush Limbaugh. She was 30, I was 13."
Limbaugh got into trouble in 1993 when, during an episode of the television show that he hosted at the time, he said, "Socks is the White House cat. But did you know there is also a White House dog?" and showed a picture of Clinton.
Limbaugh said that there had been a technical error which resulted in him showing the wrong photo. He apologized for the incident, just as he did after the firestorm surrounding his calling Fluke a "slut" for her comments about birth control.
Speaking at the 92 Street Y event, Fluke said that she was concerned that Limbaugh's attacks on her would have a chilling effect.
"I was worried they would think, 'I should sit down and shut up, because if I speak out, this is what happens' ... I want women to see this as an empowering moment," she said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/29/chelsea-clinton-sandra-fluke-rush-limbaugh_n_1388181.html
A Salute to SINGLE MOMS EVERYWHERE .... CHEERS! ..;)
View Photo Gallery — ?The Post’s David Maraniss argues that though they grew up in similar circumstances and
share many characteristics, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama developed different approaches to life and their presidencies.
By David Maraniss, Published: March 23
They were born on August days 15 years apart, at opposite ends of the baby-boom generation, Bill Clinton in 1946 and Barack Obama in 1961. Both came into the world under circumstances that made it surpassingly unlikely either boy would grow up to be president of the United States. It is hard to imagine two places further from the centers of power than southwestern Arkansas or Hawaii. Neither state had produced a president before. But there was so much more working against them than geography.
William Jefferson Blythe III and Barack Hussein Obama II were the namesakes of fathers they did not know. Billy’s dad, a traveling salesman from Texas, was killed in a car crash before his son was born. Barry’s old man, a traveling student from western Kenya, also died in a car crash. His son was 21 then but had never lived with his father. Both boys’ mothers created myths about their fathers to ease the pain; in truth, the sons were almost certainly better off without them.
There was enough turmoil in the lives of young Billy and Barry without their philandering, unpredictable fathers around. They both had strong, supportive mothers who nonetheless were gone for years at a time, pursuing careers. Billy’s mother, Virginia, went away when he was 3 and 4 so that she could study advanced nursing in Louisiana. Barry’s mother, Stanley Ann, left him behind in Hawaii, starting when he was in fifth grade, so that she could pursue anthropological work in Indonesia. In both cases, the boys stayed with grandparents who were doting but carried their own burdens. Clinton’s mammaw, also a nurse, was addicted to morphine. Obama’s tutu, a bank official, was dependable and pragmatic but a closet alcoholic. Clinton also had to deal with an alcoholic stepfather (from whom he took his last name). Obama had an Indonesian stepfather who was less volatile but no male role model.
Clinton grew up in the segregated South just as it was starting to change, and the idealistic side of his nature was driven by civil rights. In the deepest sense, he knew where he was from. Obama grew up in polyglot Oahu, a hapa — the Hawaiian term for someone of mixed heritage — in a place full of hapas, though most were some variety of Anglo and Asian and very few African American. He was biracial and cross-cultural, and in those senses, unlike Clinton, he was from everywhere and nowhere. In terms of intelligence and ambition, Clinton seemed more the exception in his family; it is hard to trace through his bloodlines where he got his brainpower. In Obama’s lineage, that inheritance is more obvious: Both parents were academic achievers with first-rate minds and graduate educations, though his father, once he had left Harvard and returned to Kenya, called himself “Dr. Obama” despite never having finished his doctoral thesis.
Among the characteristics the young Clinton and Obama shared was competitive will. My favorite story about that trait in Clinton is the time the young son of one of his aides spent a weekend afternoon playing the pinball machine at the Arkansas governor’s mansion and racked up a new high score — an upstart challenge that inspired Clinton to stay up that night, swaying and shaking and tilting the machine, until he had seized back the record from the kid. Anyone who played golf, basketball or poker with Obama saw that same need to prevail, and he could be obnoxious about it. Will Burns, who worked for Obama when he was a state senator, recalls walking the precincts of their district in the fall of 1997, rounding up petition signatures for Obama’s first reelection campaign. “Obama was even competitive about getting signatures,” said Burns, now a Chicago alderman. “We would go to someone’s door and he would say afterwards, ‘See how smooth that was. See how good I am at this. I got a full sheet! You only got a half sheet.’ And I would think, ‘Well, you’re the [expletive] candidate, of course you got a full sheet!’ That was him.”
Clinton came out of his circumstances hot, needy, sprawling. He could not stand to be left alone. So desperate was he for companionship that he was known to invite friends over just to watch him work a crossword puzzle. Obama emerged cool, a lone searcher, self-contained. There is a phrase in native Hawaiian pidgin that captures his demeanor: cool head, main thing.
Clinton’s approach was to forget the past, wake up and forgive himself and the world every day, push past the imbalances in his life and plow forward. Figure out a way to survive and move on. Obama thought that he could not find his future until he resolved his past and made himself whole, piecing together the broken parts. After he turned 18, he essentially devoted the next decade to solving the riddle of his own life. He wrote about his struggle in letters and daily journals, and later poured much of that into a memoir published before he turned 35.
These diametrically different approaches got both men where they wanted to go and then helped define their presidencies. What Clinton had pushed out of the way, unresolved, followed him into the White House. This created trouble, but he was steeled for it by his tactical, just-keep-going adaptability. Obama, on the other hand, had worked so hard to bridge the divides of his life and the contradictions of the world that he came to the job thinking he could accomplish that on a larger scale. If he could get past struggle to resolution, why could the partisans of Washington not do the same? This notion, which some saw as naive, has brought its own set of problems, to which he is now adjusting, but it was above all an expression of self-identity, what he wants to be.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/clinton-and-obama-presidential-parallels/2012/03/22/gIQArSqQWS_story.html
Geez, they really are beautiful but they don't look very happy. I guess if it's in the middle of summer, I could understand it.
and WILD HORSES! .. this is a beautiful one of your Arizona
That's very cool. Arizona really does have some beautiful wildflowers. .
McConnell takes chutzpah to new levels
October 08, 2011 11:25 AM
"President Obama Calls Out Mike Lee’s Scorched Earth Obstructionism"
By Steve Benen
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said this week that White House’s “explicit strategy” .. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20115360-503544.html .. is to “make people believe that Congress can’t get anything done.” Seriously, that’s what he said. As McConnell sees it, President Obama doesn’t want Congress to function.
Yes, after years of tragic dysfunction and Republican-imposed obstructionism unseen in American history, the conservative GOP leader from Kentucky believes this is all the president’s fault. .. http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/mcconnell-congressional-gridlock-ispresident-obamas-fault.php
“[T]hat’s their explicit strategy — to make people believe that Congress can’t get anything done.
“And how do you make sure of it? By proposing legislation you know the other side won’t support — even when there’s an entire menu of bipartisan proposals the President could choose to pursue instead. The President can govern as though this is the congress he wants or he can deal with the congress he has. Along the first path lies gridlock and along the second lies the kind of legislative progress Americans want. And as for Republicans, well, we’ve been crystal clear from the outset that we prefer the latter route.”
Got that? If Obama embraces proposals uncompromising Republicans like, then he’s being responsible. If he pushes an agenda Republicans reject, then the GOP-driven gridlock is his fault.
I rather doubt McConnell is so far gone that he actually takes this nonsense seriously, but let’s set the record straight anyway, in case anyone is confused enough to believe his ridiculous rhetoric.
For two and a half years, President Obama has, in practically every instance, tried to govern in a mainstream way, with proposals that have traditionally enjoyed at least some support from both parties. Much of his base has been infuriated by this, but the Obama White House has made a concerted effort, first outlined in the 2008 campaign, to govern in a way that could garner support from responsible officials in both parties.
Republicans haven’t cared. Even when the president has embraced GOP ideas, he’s found Republicans are willing to reject their own proposals if Obama agrees with them.
Arguably the one person most responsible for the breakdown of the American political process is Mitch McConnell. Indeed, in several instances, he’s been quite candid about his anti-governing strategy.
The record is unambiguous.
* In March 2010, .. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/us/politics/17mcconnell.html?hp .. McConnell explained his decision to try to kill health care reform from the outset, regardless of merit or Democratic compromises, by demanding unanimous Republican opposition: “It was absolutely critical that everybody be together because if the proponents of the bill were able to say it was bipartisan, it tended to convey to the public that this is O.K., they must have figured it out.” It’s a dynamic that made compromise, quite literally, impossible. [all emphasis mine]
* Soon after, McConnell explained the importance he and the House GOP leadership put on “unify[ing] our members in opposition” .. http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/nj_20100320_9241.php .. to everything Democrats propose, because unanimous Republican disagreement would necessarily make Democratic ideas less popular. “Public opinion can change, but it is affected by what elected officials do,” McConnell conceded. “Our reaction to what [Democrats] were doing had a lot to do with how the public felt about it. Republican unity in the House and Senate has been the major contributing factor to shifting American public opinion.”
* In August 2010, McConnell said he’ll only consider negotiating with the White House if they agree to accept center-right proposals, .. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_08/025065.php .. with no exceptions, even if there’s a Democratic majority.
* In October 2010, McConnell conceded on the record that defeating the president in 2012 is his “top priority,” .. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_10/026298.php .. above literally everything else, adding, “Our single biggest political goal is to give our nominee for president the maximum opportunity to be successful.”
* In June 2011, McConnell said if President Obama asks him to consider an idea Republicans don’t like, it’s evidence of the president acting “in bad faith.” .. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_06/how_wrong_is_mcconnell_let_us030546.php
* In August 2011, McConnell admitted .. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_08/mitch_mcconnell_hostage_taker031287.php .. that he and his Republican colleagues were willing to hold the nation and its economy “hostage,” threatening to destroy the United States’ full faith and credit on purpose.
And now McConnell would have Americans believe Obama, unless he agrees to govern the way Republicans want him to, is directly responsible for the perception that “Congress can’t get anything done.” This is even true right now, McConnell says, with an American Jobs Act filled with provisions GOP officials have traditionally supported.
McConnell’s willingness to blame the president for McConnell’s own deliberate strategy is plainly insane. He’s either completely lost touch with reality or he assumes those who take his rhetoric seriously have completely lost touch with reality. Either way, McConnell has taken chutzpah to levels that are hard to believe.
Steve Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog, Political Animal.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_10/mcconnell_takes_chutpah_to_new032698.php
See also:
Internal Republican poll confirms Americans think House GOP sucks
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=71548045
Tax cut fight ends ugly year for Boehner
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=70171275
Oh! .. this is a good series from Stephanie .. When Did Liberals Become So Unreasonable?
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=69229681
Senate Blocks Obama’s $447B Job Creation Plan
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=67905154
Shutdown a Step Closer as Senate Blocks House Bill
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=67373333
Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=66845990
America Held Hostage to Two-Party Failure: Government of, by and for the Corporations
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=65695906
Five Reasons the House GOP Is to Blame
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=65688342
372 Bills That Have Been Passed by the House & Not Yet ?Acted Upon By the Senate? (as of 8/23/10)
By The Hill Staff - 02/22/10 09:45 PM ET
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/83057-290-bills
In 200+ Days The House GOP Has Voted To Kill 1.9 Million Jobs And Created 0
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=65552076
The Republican Crazy Is Not An Act
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=65498872
Obama turns fire on Republicans
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=67386547
Ideologically cement-headed, demented DeMint, is one of my favorite YEEHAWS .. all excerpts ..
THE KNUCKLEHEADS THINK IT'S THE DEMOLITION DERBY.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=64796991
2012 State Of The Union Address: Enhanced Version
Arizona Wildflowers 3:55
GOP Desperation: NC Congressman Moves To Impeach Obama Over Actions in Libya
http://destroythegop.tumblr.com/post/19177586132/gop-desperation-nc-congressman-moves-to-impeach-obama
Because the economy is improving, the Bin Laden boogieman is dead, and they can’t impeach President Obama for being black, House Republicans are now resorting to this desperate and despicable move, thereby proving that:
Republicans have abandoned all pretense of doing “The People’s Business”.
Republicans are willing to waste an entire Congressional session and untold taxpayer dollars on an unsubstantiated witch hunt.
Republicans have realized that their War on Women does not bode well for them in November.
Republicans have no viable Presidential Candidate to turn out their racist bumpkin voters.
Rep. Walter B. Jones (R-NC3)
H. CON. RES. 107
“Expressing the sense of Congress that the use of offensive military force by a President without prior and clear authorization of an Act of Congress constitutes an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor under article II, section 4 of the Constitution.”
Mr. Boehner, where are the jobs?
The only path forward for our nation is the UTTER DESTRUCTION of this Republican Party.
November 6, 2012 - OCCUPY A VOTING BOOTH
http://www.alan.com/2012/03/11/north-carolina-congressman-moves-to-impeach-obama/
Westward Expansion .. 1800-1880 ..
In honor of all women who, throughout history, have fought
for the rights of women. Including those STILL fighting today.
Education
Education for women in the 1800's was a step to women equality. Early in the 1800's women were not allowed to continue school after grammar school. If they wished, they could continue their studies privately because women were considered feeble minded, intellectually challenged, and could not study beyond grammar school. As the years rolled by, women protested that they too should have a right to learn and that it is unfair that men could go to college and they can't. These brave women are our founding mothers of women education today.
In 1818, Emma Willard made an appeal to the New York State legislature to fund education. She got support from former president, Thomas Jefferson. The Common Council gave $4000 to fund Emma's school called the Troy Female Seminary in Troy, New York, which opened in Septemper 1821 and offered full courses of rigor subjects found in the best men's colleges.
Oberlin College, in Ohio, was the first college to admit both men and women, blacks and whites. The women did not receive full equality but they still received a chance for higher education. They were offered the "Ladies Course", which prepared them for motherhood, or the "Full Course".
Mary Lion established Mount Holyoke Seminary in 1837. The school offered classes practically the same as those at a men's college and it offered a complete education to women. Six other women colleges were founded as a result of Mary Lion's success, Barnard College, Bryn Mawr, Radicliff, Smith, Wellesley, and Vassar. The seven colleges were known as the Seven Sisters and they were considered female counterparts to male Ivy League colleges.
Politics
Women in the early 1800's were not supposed to be involved in politics. Men proclaimed that women were too emotional and that they could not handle the extra stress. Around the 1820's women stood up and took part in politics. They fought against slavery, abortions, women suffrage, and government issues. As one, they spoke out their feelings and beliefs using the media and at public gatherings. At first no one paid any attention to these women because they were criticized to be just foolish women, but they continued to speak until finally someone did listen them.
Mostly, women joined the American Society for the promotion of the Temperance in 1826 to go on a battle against alcohol. They wanted to reduce the high consumption of alcohol in men, women, and children. Back then, drinking alcohol on a normal basis was accepted by society. These women did not want the children to grow up in a drunken society or growing up with health problems due to alcohol. They held several conventions and in 1851 Maine became the first state to have prohibition. These women set up a foundation for national legislation against alcohol.
Lucretia Mott organized the Philadelphia Female Anti-slavery Society in 1833 because women were not allowed to join the American Anti-slavery Society. Many women joined the Philadelphia Female Anti-slavery Society and they made the abolition of slavery a public issue and the first political movement they participated in. The Philadelphia Female Anti-slavery Society went on to focus on women's rights a few years later.
On July 19, 1848 two hundred and forty women attended a convention in Seneca Falls to discuss women's rights. At the convention, they came up with the "Declaration of the Sentiments" which was modeled after the Declaration of Independence. Suffrage was a main issue at the convention.Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Straton were the leaders of the National Women Suffrage Association in 1869. They fought to help both women and slaves. The organization wanted to make an amendment saying that women should have the same rights men had.
In 1872, Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman to run for the president of the United States. One of her campaign issues was to convince Congress to legalize women suffrage under the Fourteenth Amendment in the Constitution. Victoria's ex-husband walks back into her life and proclaims that she never divorced him and that Victoria got married while she was still legally married to him. The story got out and that ended her campaign for president.
In 1878, Senator Arlen A. Sargent of California submitted a women suffrage amendment to Congress. The proposal was modeled after the fifteenth amendment and it was mocked at Congress. Little do they know that this amendment would be the nineteenth amendment 45 years later.
Employment
Employing women for jobs in the early 1800's was rarely thought of until about 1820 when farmer girls needed to help with the family's financial problems. These girls were recruited because factory owners thought that were a dependable and obedient work force. Allowing women to work in factories opened many doors for women in the business world. They were given opportunities to work and see a different world that they would never have seen.
The Lowell Mill was the first mill to hire young women. In February 20, 1834, the mill began to cut wages up to 15% and increased production. The women decided to go on a strike. They fought for a 10-hour workday instead of just a few hours in one day. This strike proved that women are capable of organizing and persistent in achieving labor reforms as any man.
At the age of nine, Antoinette Blackwell was a full member of the Congregational Church in New York. In 1846, she went Oberlin to study in theology. Oberlin never gave her a degree when she graduated because Oberlin disapprove of a woman reading or reciting the holy bible in church. In 1853, the Congregational Church in South Butler, New York offered her a job a minister
On March 3, 1879 Belva Lockwood was the first woman to be able to practice law before the Supreme Court. She was able to pass legislation in early 1879 that allow women to practice before the Supreme Court. Belva Lockwood's legislation brought down the barriers that had prejudice on women in the federal courts. The legislation also grounded court procedures in the state courts.
Science and Mathematics
In the 1800's women across the nation began to take a turn in science and mathematics. Many women became involve in the fields and they showed an interest in the subject that amazed men. Women scholars were accepted into colleges that offered the best classes of science and mathematics in the nation because their knowledge was valued greatly. More and more women looked back on their stereotype that women should only do "Household things" and opposed it. They realized that the new age of women was coming and that they should get a head start at it.
Maria Mitchell one day spotted a new comet and it was named after her. Her discovery led her to the election of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1848. Maria was then offered a job at Vassar College; there she worked with some of the most intellectual women in America. Also Maria was elected to the American Philosophical Society and she founded the Association for the Advancement of women.
After applying to many medical schools, Elizabeth Blackwell was finally accepted into Geneva Medical College in 1849. But the only reason that they accepted her was because they thought application was a hoax perpetrated by a rival college. She proved to the faculty and students at Geneva Medical College that a woman could do anything as well as a man. Elizabeth graduated at the head of her class.
Fanny Wright went on a tour in 1828-1829 to lecture about women's rights in education, property rights, rights in education, and the accessibility to birth control. She was strong in her lectures, which made her an expressive and practical speaker. Because it was unusual for a woman to speak at a public lecture, in fact it was unusual for a woman to even go to one, Fanny had much criticism on her. Even though Fanny was being criticized, she continued lecturing on her beliefs. Thus Fanny Wright opened a doorway for women's free speech.
Before 1851, Sojourner Truth was not allowed to speak in public but in 1851 she was allowed to speak in front of an audience at a women's rights convention. She captured the audience with her powerful and strong speech, "Ain't I a Woman." Sojourner continued fighting for women's rights and captivating the audiences on the way. People listened to her preaching because they were true and strong.
Women of the 1800's did many things that led up to women's recognition of equality in the 1900's. These women fought so that they could have rights in equality, to be treated as human being. They could not keep their own wages, children and sometimes even themselves. Education and job opportunities were very limited until women began to stand up and speak out. Whether they are young or old, everyone did something that led up to equality. Even if it was something little like refusing to marry who your father wants you to, that is one step to equality because that is saying that you have a mind of your own and that you should be able to choose who you will marry.
http://www.angelfire.com/ca/HistoryGals/Linda.html
"What it does show is that they perceive women as something less than human and thus not deserving of the same consideration. While the right is chock full of misogynists and sexist buttheads who objectify women and see them only as a means to meet their physical needs, it's actually a sign of considering them as property and not as people. It might go back to the days where they thought women should only be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. It might be just their own insecurity and subsequent need to bully someone they think is weaker.
I have news for them. These are our wives, our sisters, our daughters, our girlfriends and our friends, who they are trying to control. They are not chattel for them to push around and control. They are as free as the rest of us to make their own decisions, especially in regards to what happens to their bodies."
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=73195265
Abortion not comic, papers rule
Ewen Macaskill
March 13, 2012
A single panel from an abortion-related 'Doonesbury' comic strip, by Garry Trudeau. Photo: Reuters
A GARRY Trudeau Doonesbury cartoon strip lampooning Texas legislation on abortion has been pulled by some US newspapers. Several papers are declining to use the strip at all, and others are switching it from the comic section to editorial pages.
The strip deals with a law introduced in Texas and other states requiring a woman seeking an abortion to have a sonogram, which shows an image of a foetus and other details, in an attempt to make her reconsider.
A woman is shown at a Texas clinic being told to take a seat in ''the shaming room''. A state legislator asks if she has been there before and, when she says she came to get contraceptives, he replies: ''Do your parents know you're a slut?''
Later, she says she doesn't want an intrusive vaginal examination but a nurse says: ''The male Republicans who run Texas require that all abortion seekers be examined with a 10-inch shaming wand.'' The nurse adds: ''By the authority invested in me by the GOP base, I thee rape.''
Abortion, contraception and other social issues have been highlighted by the Republican presidential candidates.
Trudeau, who uses his cartoons for social commentary, said he would have been surprised if there had not been a pushback. ''It's just an occupational risk,'' he said. About 1400 newspapers take Doonesbury. The Guardian ran the strip as normal yesterday.
GUARDIAN, WASHINGTON POST
http://www.smh.com.au/world/abortion-not-comic-papers-rule-20120312-1uwaf.html
Understanding the Election
Josh Marshall March 9, 2012, 3:24 PM 1000
The Republicans had an awful mid-term election in 1982 and Ronald Reagan cruised to a historic landslide two years later in 1984. A rebounding economy was a huge factor in the change. Is something even remotely similar going to happen with Barack Obama in 2012? Here’s a really important chart showing the similarities and differences between the economic trajectory during the two periods. Take a look.
This link is in the original above twice .. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/03/understanding_the_election.php?ref=fpblg
Why Obama Hopes The Recovery Picks Up Even More (CHART)
Brian Beutler March 9, 2012, 1:53 PM 23586 304
Will recent months of economic good news, including today’s Department of Labor unemployment report, redound to President Obama’s political benefit in 2012?
If the GOP’s messaging schizophrenia over the last several weeks is any indication, they seem to think it could. And there are real precedents for this effect. When President Reagan’s economy bottomed out and began to improve, it did so early and quickly enough in his term that he pronounced it “morning in America” and won a landslide re-election.
Here’s how President Obama’s recovery looks by comparison.
This isn’t intended to compare the recessions the two presidents faced — they were fundamentally different kinds of recessions, and as you can see, Obama faced a ballooning unemployment problem on day one in office. Likewise, it isn’t to compare the policy responses. It’s simply to note that if voters see a source of light at the end of the tunnel growing larger and brighter, and quickly, they respond favorably.
It’s worth noting that the unemployment rate can at times be a misleading indicator of the brightness of that light. For instance, though unemployment held steady at 8.3 percent in February, “there was an increase in the size of the labor force last month of 476,000,” said Alan Krueger, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, in an official statement. “Importantly, the increase in the labor force last month was due in large part to a reduction in the number of workers who exited the labor force between January and February.” A rapidly growing economy can result in a slow drop (or even an increase!) in the unemployment rate — creating a false sense of a faltering recovery, when indeed it’s quite the opposite.
But for now, it appears Obama’s recovery is proceeding steadily, though not as steeply as Reagan’s. That’s still good news politically for Obama. But with eight months to go before the election, the White House understandably wants things to pick up even more, both politically and for the sake of the country.
As Krueger told Bloomberg, .. http://www.bloomberg.com/video/88047600/ .. “What we’d like to see is for this job growth to continue, for this to lead to a more virtuous cycle which raises aggregate demand and puts us on a stronger upward trajectory.”
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/03/why-obama-hopes-the-recovery-picks-up-even-more-chart.php
No Likey No Rick
Josh Marshall March 9, 2012, 4:44 PM 19182
For most of this campaign cycle Rick Santorum has been one of the least disliked Republican presidential candidates. This year especially he’s only been slightly underwater in terms of favorability and he was briefly in net positive territory. But around the 20th of last month that began to change in a big way, which is right about where the ‘snob’/digs at college education story started to hit. (There were actually a few things — robocalls to Dems, whack at JFK, comments about church and state, etc.)
Check out this chart after the jump …
LOL .. WATCH the UNFAVORABLE DOT cross the FAVORABLE DOT .. where
the dots cross paths .. LOL .. wish the interactive inside could be copied ..
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/03/no_likey_no_rick.php?ref=fpblg
yup, did open the link .. lol .. let's get REAL!
Dennis Kucinich Isn't Going Graciously
Criticizes rival's “gutter-level campaign. And still won't say whether he's decamping to Washington State.
Rosie Gray Mar 9, 2012 9:23am EST
Dennis Kucinich greets supporters on Super Tuesday with his wife Elizabeth in Cleveland.
(AP / Amy Sancetta)
Dennis Kucinich said today that he has no plans to endorse his former friend and the winner of Ohio's 9th Congressional District seat, Marcy Kaptur.
"I haven't done that and I'm not sure I will," he said. "The problem is in politics if someone runs a gutter-level campaign, you're just expected to say it's OK and you move on. Marcy's been my friend for 30 years and I have to tell you, it was pretty surprising to me the kind of campaign that was run, it was more worthy of Karl Rove than Marcy Kaptur."
Kucinich lost in the primary on Super Tuesday to Kaptur; the pair had been forced to square off against each other due to a redistricting that in the end, benefited Kaptur.
In an interview on the Bill Press Show, Kucinich wouldn't even say that a Kaptur victory in the general would be a better outcome than Joe the Plumber, who won the primary on the Republican side: "I'm not getting into the politics of the district. This is something that goes beyond politics. You've got to look at the election and then you'll understand why I don't want to talk about it."
And he still won't address his rumored plan to move to Washington State and run for Congress there, saying "I don't have any plans right now, Bill. I didn't plan to lose."
"I don't need a certificate of election to be outspoken on those things that matter for my community and my country."
http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/dennis-kucinich-isnt-going-graciously
The bar for 'stunningly cute' has just been raised.
I'm sorry, I love my cats and kittens, and think they're insanely cute, but this goes above and beyond it all.
Baby polar bear, courtesy of the Bear With Us Sanctuary:
What else needs to be said? I'm a crusty old bastard, and I'm reduced to making goo-goo sounds.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/09/1072634/-The-bar-for-stunningly-cute-has-just-been-raised-?via=siderec
For an Alinsky-loving Kenyan Marxist radical, Obama sure has a weird definition of socialism
Jed Lewison Fri Mar 09, 2012 at 06:54 AM PST
If socialism means more private sector jobs and fewer government ones, then President Obama is a socialist.
But if that's the case, then what does that make President Bush?
Oh, by the way, in the wake of today's jobs report showing 227,000 jobs were added to the economy in February and
that growth in December and January was even stronger than originally believed, it's important to remember:
David Leonhardt: The economy just had its best 12 months of job growth in more than five years.
— @DLeonhardt via TweetDeck
And lest I forget to mention:
Scott Paul: Worth noting: durable goods #manufacturing jobs up 444k since January 2010. Longest
and deepest period of #mfg jobs growth since 1993-5.
— @ScottPaulAAM via Twitter for iPad
Sorry, wingnuts. Your dream of American failure is being dashed before your very eyes.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/09/1072714/-For-an-Alinsky-loving-Kenyan-Marxist-radical-Obama-sure-has-a-weird-definition-of-socialism?via=blog_1
About the Founding Fathers
Heh, George Washington's teeth were the hook.
Very inventive. Interesting tidbits in each.
George Washington
James Madison
Thomas Jefferson
John Adams
Benjamin Franklin
Alexander Hamilton
George Mason
Gouverneur Morris
Roger Sherman
James Wilson
Edmund Randolph
George Washington (1732-1799)
Highest Political Office: President (1789-1797)
Other Accomplishments: Led the colonial forces in the Revolutionary War
The staid portraits of George Washington accurately reflect the personality of the father of the nation. He was a man of few words, whose political ascension was attributable to his strength of character, rather than his intellect.
A huge man for his day, Washington stood 6' 3 1/2" tall with enormous hands. Washington had pockmarked skin as a result of a teenage case of smallpox, and a shy disposition that was the result of a domineering mother. Twice he proposed to women, and twice he was rejected. He finally married Martha Custis, the richest widow in Virginia.
He had lost almost all his teeth by the time he was president, leaving him with badly sunken cheeks that were stuffed with cotton for portraits. Contrary to popular belief, George Washington never had wooden teeth! His teeth were made mostly of lead fitted with human, cattle, and hippopotamus teeth. Some were carved from elephant and walrus tusks.
In his will, he freed all 300 of his slaves permanently.
The popular tale of Washington and the cherry tree, historians say, was almost certainly untrue.
His Politics: Washington was a Federalist, so he favored a strong central government. He also had a strong affinity for aristocrats. During the Constitutional Convention, he spent much of his time at the mansion of Robert Morris, the richest man in America. His closest political ally was Alexander Hamilton, whose policies inevitably leaned toward the upper classes.
Washington was the only president to win unanimous approval (all of the votes cast) by the electoral college. He did it twice.
In office, Washington served the nation best by keeping the government stable. He advocated a strong national defense, and kept the country out of the escalating tension between England and France.
His health failing, Washington begged out of the presidency after one term. Men from both sides of the political fence urged him to remain in office, however, so he stayed on. His second inaugural address may reveal his enthusiasm for the second term. At 135 words, it is the shortest inaugural address in history.
Closest Crony Among the Founding Fathers: Alexander Hamilton
What He Said: “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence—it is a force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.”
James Madison (1751-1836)
Highest Political Office: President (1809-1817)
Other Accomplishments: Helped draft Virginia’s state constitution when he was 25. That document later became the model for the U.S. Constitution. Served as Jefferson’s Secretary of State.
Madison was a soft-spoken and tiny man—about 5'4" and less than 100 pounds. Even his nickname was diminutive: “Jemmy.” He was too small to serve in the Revolutionary War, and turned to politics instead.
Madison, “the Father of the Constitution”—the most important legal document in modern history—never received a law degree.
Even in his 40s, Madison was a lonely and single man. That changed when Aaron Burr introduced him to Dolley Todd. The couple married when Madison was 43, and never had children.
Dolley Madison earned a place in history when she stole away from the White House with crucial government documents and a portrait of George Washington as the British stormed the capital during the War of 1812.
Madison was the last Founding Father to die at the age of eighty-five in June, 1836.
His Politics: His presidency was marred by the War of 1812—the only war in which U.S. soil was overrun by enemy forces. The war was precipitated by the widespread sentiment that the U.S. was destined to conquer Canada, then a British territory.
Aside from the war that nearly cost him his reelection, Madison’s two terms were also memorable for the fact that both of his vice presidents died while in office.
Closest Crony Among the Founding Fathers: Jefferson and Madison were close friends throughout their lives: Madison was Jefferson’s protégé. After their presidencies, each spent many days at the other’s estate. Jefferson named one of the bedrooms at Monticello “Mr. Madison’s room.”
What He Said: On the War of 1812: “I flung forward the flag of the country, sure that the people would press onward and defend it.” Under the new Constitution, the nation’s powers will be “derived from the superior power of the people.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
Highest Political Office: President (1801-1809)
Other Accomplishments: Wrote the Declaration of Independence, served as Minister to France (a pivotal diplomatic position) as the Constitution was being drafted.
Jefferson was nicknamed “Long Tom” because he stood 6' 2 1/2" tall, with long, slender limbs. He had carrot-red hair that paled with age. A fiddle player, Jefferson wooed his wife with violin serenades. Jefferson eschewed the uniforms of nobility, choosing instead to dress himself in sometimes dirty and tattered clothing.
Although his wife died at the age of 33, Jefferson never remarried. He did, however, allegedly father five children by Sally Hemings, one of his slaves.
Jefferson suffered from migraine headaches throughout his life, and bathed his feet in cold water daily to avoid colds.
Jefferson was the quintessential Renaissance man and has been described as a(n): lawyer, linguist, diplomat, astronomer, naturalist, political philosopher, educator, statesman, president, “farmer,” musician, scientist, inventor, agriculturalist, horseman, geographer, theologian and paleontologist. Jefferson was fluent in Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, German, and was a supporter of equal rights and education for women, the right of all to have a free public education, a free library system and the creation of decimal system of weights and measures. He is also considered one of the preeminent architects in the history of the country.
His Politics: Jefferson was a Republican, which at that time was the party of the common man. He envisioned a nation built on agriculture, not industry. The formal name for the “Republican” Party of Jefferson was the Democratic-Republican Party from which our present day Democratic party evolved. (The Republican party of today was created in 1854 by the joining of anti-slavery Democrats, the Free Soil Party and factions of the Whig Party.) The formal name of the opposing party (led by Alexander Hamilton) was the Federalist Party.
Jefferson was renowned for being a terrible public speaker due to a speech impediment, although he is certainly regarded as one of the most facile writers ever to hold the office of the presidency. He alone wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence.
He doubled the land size of the United States when he made the Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon. Napoleon needed cash to conquer Europe; Jefferson wanted the land to safeguard against a future French invasion and to encourage his vision of American being a land of small independent (yeoman) farmers. The selling price: $15 million.
After his two terms as president, Jefferson retired to his Virginia estate, Monticello. He spent much of his time pursuing his dream of establishing a university. That dream was realized when he founded the University of Virginia.
Closest Crony Among the Founding Fathers: Although his closest friend among the founding fathers was James Madison, Jefferson’s most memorable friendship was with John Adams. The friendship developed when they both worked on the committee that was responsible for the Declaration of Independence. Their friendship turned to a bitter rivalry, however, when they joined opposing political parties. They reconciled after both finished their presidencies, and they kept up a steady correspondence. They both died on July 4, 1826—50 years to the day after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. On the day he died, Adams opened his eyes and whispered his last words: “Thomas Jefferson lives,” he said. Jefferson had died earlier that day.
What He Said: “A little rebellion now and then is a good thing.” “Science is my passion, politics my duty.”
John Adams (1735-1826)
Highest Political Office: President (1797-1801)
Other Accomplishments: First vice-president. Helped draft the Declaration of Independence and negotiate the peace agreement with Great Britain to end the Revolutionary War. Served as Minister to Great Britain.
Nicknamed “Atlas of American Independence,” John Adams was a short (5'7"), plump man with an ego as big as his waistline. He felt it was beneath him to shake hands with anyone; he bowed instead. Adams was not alone in this practice, however. George Washington also preferred to bow rather than shake hands.
Born and raised in what is now Quincy, Massachusetts, Adams was a lawyer by trade. He was the longest living American president. He died at the age of 90, in Quincy. Adams was the first president to occupy the White House. The nation moved its capital from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., during his administration.
His Politics: Adams was a Federalist, and, as such, he held a more elitist view of government than his Republican rivals.
The first truly defense-minded president, Adams built the U.S. Navy to the point where it could compete with that of any nation.
Probably his most enduring political legacy was that he appointed John Marshall as Supreme Court Chief Justice. His most ignominious political legacy was his signing of the “Alien and Sedition Acts,” which made it a crime to criticize the government (violators could be imprisoned).
Adams was most proud of the fact that he avoided war with France at the turn of the century, in the face of strong public opinion in favor of war. This, along with his perceived overspending on defense, led to his defeat in his re-election campaign.
Closest Crony Among the Founding Fathers: Thomas Jefferson was, by turns, both his closest crony and most loathed political enemy. They ended their lives as friends, dying on the same day, 50 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence (see fascinating facts about Thomas Jefferson).
What He Said: “Let the human mind loose. It must be loosed. It will be loose. Superstition and despotism cannot confine it.”
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
Highest Political Office: Minister to France
Other Accomplishments: Franklin was one of the three Americans to sign the peace treaty with England that ended the Revolutionary War. He also helped write the Declaration of Independence, and was the oldest delegate at the Constitutional Convention.
Of the Founding Fathers, Franklin was easily the most unusual character. He made enough money from his publishing business—primarily on receipts from Poor Richard’s Almanac—to retire at age 42. He then devoted his life to writing, science, and politics.
Among his many inventions, Franklin created bifocal glasses. He did so because he didn’t like to carry two pairs of glasses with him.
Franklin had one illegitimate son, William, who became the Governor of New Jersey. William supported the British in the Revolution. That move resulted in the permanent estrangement of father and son.
His Politics: Franklin’s political activism had peaked long before the American party system fully evolved, but he was philosophically closer to the tenets of the Democratic-Republican party.
He was suspicious of strong central governments and governors, be they kings or presidents. Indeed, Franklin advocated a three-person presidential committee rather than having a single president. Of the proposal to have a one-man president, he said, “The government is likely to be well-administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism.” Nonetheless, in Franklin’s will, he bequeathed his walking stick to president Washington.
Franklin had a restless and ravenous mind. He eschewed normal work patterns, preferring instead to set his own pace, and ignoring appointments if he was interested enough in a conversation. He also possessed the largest private library in America. Not all of his ideas won wide acceptance. A case in point: Franklin’s choice for the national bird was the turkey.
Closest Crony Among the Founding Fathers: Thomas Jefferson. When Franklin died, Jefferson implored President Washington to hold a day of mourning. Washington balked, not wishing to set a precedent.
What He Said: “Our Constitution is in actual operation. Everything appears to promise that it will last. But in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.” At the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention Franklin observed the symbol of the sun at the top of George Washington’s chair and mused: “I have the happiness to know it is a rising sun and not a setting sun”
Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804)
Highest Political Office: Treasury Secretary
Other Accomplishments: Along with Madison and John Jay, authored the Federalist Papers, rallying support for the new Constitution. Led the effort to convene the Constitutional Convention when the nation was verging on anarchy.
Hamilton called for a meeting of all 13 states at Annapolis, Maryland in September, 1786 to discuss the economic situation in the country at that time. However, only five states sent representatives. There were not enough states for a quorum and the conference had no real authority. Undaunted, Hamilton then requested permission from the Congress of the Confederation (under the Articles of Confederation) to invite representatives from the thirteen states to assemble in Philadelphia with the express purpose of “revising” the Articles of Confederation. Behind closed doors and with no real authority, the delegates decided to write an entirely new constitution.
Hamilton was consumed by his passion for a nation built around a strong and fiscally stable central government. He was born out of wedlock in the West Indies, and moved to the colonies at the age of 17. His father, a Scottish trader, went bankrupt when Hamilton was 15, and the boy went to work in a counting house to help support the family.
Fresh out of Columbia University, he organized artillery regiments in New York for the Revolutionary War, and from 1779 to 1781 he was Washington’s chief aide. When Washington assumed the presidency, he named Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury.
Ironically, before Washington was elected president, Hamilton was one of a group of politicians who felt that the U.S. needed a king. The group wrote to Prussia’s Prince Henry and asked if he wanted the job. Before he replied, the group changed its mind.
His Politics: Hamilton was the one who most advocated an elitist political vision. He believed that the intellectual aristocracy should rule the nation.
Hamilton’s political legacy is embodied in the Federal Bank. He led the effort to establish the first such bank, which he saw as critical for sustaining the government’s fragile finances. His opponents saw the bank as an evil tool for expanding the power of the federal government, at the expense of the states. Hamilton is regarded as the “Father of the National Debt” because he felt that a national debt was really a “blessing.” The more money the government owed to the people of the country, the more the people had a stake in the success of the country!
When Jefferson ran for president in 1800, he and Aaron Burr (both Republicans) tied. The election went to the Federalist-controlled House. Hamilton, founder of the Federalist party, convinced his colleagues to elect Jefferson over Burr. Burr then campaigned for governor of New York. Again, Hamilton swayed voters against Burr. Finally, Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel. Fatally wounded by his rival, Hamilton died one day later.
Closest Crony Among the Founding Fathers: George Washington
What He Said: “The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the Divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.”
George Mason (1725-1792)
Highest Political Office: Member, Virginia Constitutional Convention (1776) Delegate, Constitutional Convention (1787)
Other Accomplishments: Helped create the Virginia Bill of Rights and Virginia Constitution.
Although George Mason refused to sign the Constitution, his ideas still had a major effect on the fabric of American political thought. He was one of the richest planters in Virginia and was involved early in his life with western land speculation. Mason served for a brief time in the Virginia House of Burgesses along with his close friend, George Washington. He was more concerned with the types of public duties that did not bring the kind of recognition that his contemporaries were interested in. However, he was one of the most fundamental thinkers of the American Revolution and formed a close philosophical alliance with Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, James Madison, and George Washington.
His Politics: Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence was influenced greatly by Mason’s work on the Virginia bill of rights, and Mason’s ideas also had an impact on the development of the Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution. He eventually opposed the Constitution because of the compromise concerning slavery (known as the 3/5 Compromise) and the failure of the delegates to include a Bill of Rights. These objections to the Constitution became the focal point for the anti-federalists during the ratification process. He was chosen the first Senator from Virginia but refused the seat in 1789. Mason has been called the American example of the Enlightenment.
Closest Crony Among the Founding Fathers: George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson
What He Said: "It is easy to foresee that there will be much difficulty in organizing a government upon this great scale, and at the same time reserving to the state legislatures a sufficient portion of power for promoting and securing the prosperity and happiness of their respective citizens. Yet, with a proper degree of coolness, liberality, and candour (very rare commodities by the bye) I doubt not but that it may be effected."
Gouverneur Morris (1725-1816)
Highest Political Office: U.S. Minister to England (1790-1791); U.S. Minister to France (1792-1794); United States Senator (1800-1803)
Other Accomplishments: Signer of the Articles of Confederation; Member, Continental Congress (1777-1778); Assistant Minister of Finance (1781-1785); Member of the Constitutional Convention (1787); Chairman of the Erie Canal Commission (1810-1813).
During his lifetime, Gouverneur Morris was a successful politician, diplomat and writer. He was a strong supporter of the federal constitution although he was not a strong supporter of the “power” of the people (he initially opposed the American Revolution because he felt it was controlled by the “mob”). He had a wooden leg due to a carriage accident.
His Politics: He was in favor of senators being chosen for life, significant property qualifications to vote, direct election of the president by the elite qualified voters, and representation in Congress based on taxation. “The mob begin to think and reason. Poor reptiles! They bask in the sun, and ere noon they will bite, depend on it. The gentry begin to fear this.” It has been recorded that Gouverneur Morris spoke more than anyone at the Constitutional Convention (173 times). He was made the chairman of the Committee of Style and was responsible for the “wording” of the Constitution. He took twenty-three proposed resolutions and condensed them into the seven major articles contained in the Constitution. Morris declined Alexander Hamilton’s request to help write the Federalist Papers, and during the “fight” for ratification he played no significant part. After Alexander Hamilton was killed by Aaron Burr in 1804, Morris prepared the eulogy.
Closest Crony Among the Founding Fathers: Alexander Hamilton, George Washington
What He Said: “I cannot conceive of a government in which there can exist two supremes.”
“I came here (to the Constitutional Convention) as a representative of America. I flatter myself that I came here in some degree as a representative of the whole human race.”
Roger Sherman (1721-1793)
Highest Political Office: United States House of Representatives (1788-1791); United States Senator (1791-1793).
Other Accomplishments: Member, Continental Congress (1774-1781, 1783 and 1784); Helped draft the Declaration of Independence; Helped draft the Articles of Confederation; Was responsible for the Great Compromise (Connecticut Compromise) at the Constitutional Convention.
Sherman was a self-made man, married twice and fathered fifteen children. Before the Revolutionary War he held positions in the Connecticut government in all three branches (legislative, executive, and judicial). He was a political conservative, but strongly favored the American Revolution once it began. Sherman was in support of the colonial boycotts of the 1760’s and was in charge of the New Haven committees of correspondence (organizations that promoted inter-colonial communication). He was not known as a gifted speaker, but he toiled hard in various committees in order to make sound and lasting policy. However, at the Constitutional Convention he did speak 138 times on various issues, and only James Madison, James Wilson, and Gouverneur Morris spoke more often. Roger Sherman was the second oldest delegate there (right behind 81 year old Benjamin Franklin). Thomas Jefferson once remarked, “There is Mr. Sherman of Connecticut, who never said a foolish thing in his life.”
His Politics: He was in favor of the President being appointed by the Legislature for a three year term of office. However, his most important accomplishment was the compromise on representation in Congress he suggested that broke the “deadlock” between large and small states. This compromise was called the “Great Compromise”, and it showed the delegates that they could and should compromise in order to accomplish the writing of a new constitution. Thus, the Constitution has been characterized historically as a “bundle of compromises”. He was, however, opposed to a separate “bill of rights” to be added to the Constitution. By the time Sherman served in the United States Congress he was an advocate of the Federalist philosophy. He ended up supporting Alexander Hamilton's financial program of assumption of state debts, the establishment of a national bank, and enactment of a tariff to help the young nation to stabilize its economy.
Closest Crony Among the Founding Fathers: William Johnson
What He Said: “The question is, not what rights naturally belong to man, but how they may be most equally and effectually guarded in society.”
“When you are in a minority, talk; when you are in a majority, vote.”
James Wilson (1742-1798)
Highest Political Office: Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court
Other Accomplishments: Member, Continental Congress (1775-1777; 1782; 1783; 1785-1787); Signer of the Declaration of Independence; First Professor of Law at Philadelphia College (1790).
James Wilson was an early supporter of the American Revolution and gained much notoriety with the publication of his “Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament”. However, he became very conservative in his later years and was the target of public indignation. He was born in Scotland, came to New York during the time of the Stamp Act (1765), and eventually studied law under John Dickinson in Pennsylvania. He eventually became the first professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania in 1791.
It was said of James Wilson that “when Wilson speaks, he wastes no time and considers no man’s feelings.”
His Politics: He emerged as a political leader after the American Revolutionary War, and as a member of the Congress of the Confederation (1783; 1785-1786) under the Articles of Confederation was strongly in favor of an amendment to permit the government the power to tax.
He was a strong supporter of a republican form of government in which the people choose the representatives in government, and was in favor of the “power” of the people during a time period when many of the political visionaries did not believe in democracy. The democracy that we know today did not really take shape until the 1820’s with the advent of Andrew Jackson. Wilson felt that people and their individual rights took priority over those of property rights, and was opposed to slavery. He also believed in the concept of “federalism” in which there was a division of power between the states and national government. However, the final authority ultimately went to the central government. At the Constitutional Convention he was a leader of the many floor debates and a member of the committee chosen to draft the Constitution. He then led the fight for ratification in Pennsylvania, which became the second state to approve the new Constitution.
Closest Crony Among the Founding Fathers: John Rutledge
What He Said: “The government ought to possess not only first the force but secondly the mind or sense of the people at large. The legislature ought to be the most exact transcript of the whole society.”
“Why should a national government be unpopular? Will a citizen of Delaware be degraded by becoming a citizen of the United States?”
“Federal liberty is to states what civil liberty is to individuals ... I do not see the danger of the states being devoured by the national government.” On the contrary, I wish to keep them from devouring the national government.”
Edmund Randolph (1753-1813)
Highest Political Office: U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Secretary of State
Other Accomplishments: Helped draft the constitution for the state of Virginia; Member, Continental Congress (1779-1782); Governor or Virginia (1786-1788); Member, Virginia Ratification Convention; chief counsel for Aaron Burr during his treason trial (1807).
Edmund Randolph graduated from the College of William and Mary and practiced law until the American Revolutionary War disrupted his personal and professional life. At the outbreak of the war in 1775, his father, mother, and sisters moved back to England. Randolph supported the rebellion and served for a short time as an aid to General George Washington, but soon returned to Virginia to become the youngest member of the convention to write Virginia’s state constitution. He then became the mayor of Williamsburg and later the “state’s” attorney general.
His Politics: Randolph’s political experience also involved becoming a member of the Continental Congress, Governor of Virginia, and a delegate to the Annapolis Convention of 1786.
He was chosen to be a delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention in 1787, and is best known for presenting a proposal supporting the large states known as the Virginia Plan. The plan called for a bicameral legislative body and each state represented by population with the first house (representatives) elected by the people and the second house (senators) elected by the first house. The Virginia Plan eventually became part of the Great Compromise or Connecticut Compromise submitted by Roger Sherman. He also wanted a committee of three to act as president. Randolph also served on the Committee on Detail that prepared a first draft of the new constitution. However, because of philosophical differences over the final Constitution, he refused to sign it. He did eventually support its ratification when the agreement was made to include amendments to protect the rights of individuals and the states (Bill of Rights). Randolph referred to the Constitution as “the anchor of our political salvation”.
Closest Crony Among the Founding Fathers: Thomas Jefferson
What He Said: “There are great reasons when persons with limited powers are
justified in exceeding them, and a person would be contemptible not to risk it.”
http://www.constitutionfacts.com/?section=foundingFathers&page=aboutFathers.cfm
Corporations have to warn consumers, why not doctors? .. what's
the difference? .. i mean doctors are people too, aren't they?
That bill sucks.
Romney ads anger Latinos, Slam Santorum for Sotomayor Vote
Posted on 03/08/2012 by Juan
Political Ticker is reporting that .. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/07/romney-sotomayor-ads-irk-latino-groups/ .. Latino voters in California are annoyed with GOP front runner Mitt Romney over his ads attacking rival Rick Santorum for voting in 1998 to confirm Sonia Sotomayor for the district court. That vote, the radio ads allege, put her on the way to becoming a justice of the Supreme Court.
Romney’s people say the ads target Sotomayor’s liberal stances. But first of all, she isn’t that liberal. And second, it is impossible to complain about Santorum helping Sotomayor’s career without appearing, at least, to be anti-Latino/ Latina.
In opinion polling last fall, Obama led his Republican rivals among Latinos by a factor of 2.5 to 1. ..
http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/11/univision_news_poll_obama_holds_advantage_with_latino_voters.html
Latinos could provide the margin of victory in the 15 crucial swing states .. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-garcia/hispanic-voters-2012_b_1268874.html .. of: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.
I read somewhere that if a presidential candidate doesn’t get 40 percent of the Latino vote nowadays, he or she cannot win.
Romney hasn’t started out on the right foot.
http://www.juancole.com/2012/03/romney-ads-anger-latinos-slam-santorum-for-sotomayor-vote.html
Dems Irate As GOP Set To Break Debt Limit Deal
Sahil Kapur March 8, 2012, 1:18 PM 23040 225
Signs mounted Thursday that House Republican leaders, under pressure from their conservative members, will submit a budget that calls for cutting federal programs beneath the levels they agreed to in the bipartisan August debt limit law. Democrats warned that violating the agreement could spark a government shutdown fight later this year.
Echoing Sen. Patty Murray .. http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/03/dem-leadership-warns-house-gop-not-to-renege-on-budget-deal.php?ref=fpa .. (D-WA), Rep. Chris Van Hollen (MD), the top Democrat on the Budget Committee, told TPM that the House GOP must not go down that road.
“Look, an agreement is agreement, and they should stick to the agreement,” Van Hollen said in a brief interview. “And not otherwise risk ultimately messing up the entire process, with a worst case scenario of a government shutdown. They should recognize what the risks are in violating an agreement.”
The Associated Press .. http://www.cnbc.com/id/46659684 .. and Politico .. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/73758.html .. are each reporting that House Republicans are set to get behind a budget resolution below the appropriations caps in the August debt limit law. And even though Senate Democrats are all but certain to reject those levels, one veteran House conservative indicated that the GOP is indeed prepared to pick the fight anyhow.
“What we want to do is get the lowest possible number, and make certain that we get ourselves on a path to a balanced budget,” Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) told TPM. “That’s the goal.”
Asked whether the GOP budget will cut beneath BCA levels, she responded, “We’ll see where we go. We’ve just got to realize that the trajectory of spending has got to be stopped. We need to freeze things, cut things, and make certain that we return this nation to fiscal health.”
Top Republicans have been wary of touching off another battle .. http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/03/house-gop-caught-in-a-budget-predicament.php?ref=fpa .. they’re not likely to win, but have struggled to herd their conservative members who want much deeper cuts to domestic federal programs. Soon after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Budget Committee Republicans met privately to seek a resolution, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) — a top Dem strategist — issued a stern warning to Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).
“The Speaker should remember a deal is a deal,” Schumer told reporters at a Capitol briefing with Democratic leadership. “The House Republican leadership should not go back on their word just to quell another uprising by the tea party. Again, he’ll lose, on the budget like on everything else, if [Boehner] lets this small group on the hard right dictate where the whole House should go.”
Asked at his weekly press conference whether he’s prepared to break the debt limit deal, Boehner wouldn’t bite. “Our members are having a discussion about what the budget should look like,” he said, “and I’m waiting for the outcome of those conversations.”
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/03/dems-irate-as-house-gop-prepares-to-violate-budget-deal.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
Here comes another freaking AZ lawsuit. These guys must really be in cahoots with the lawyers no matter how much they dis them.
stalker,
just for you stalker, i'll repost the Howard Stern clip u left out
Arrests at Virginia State Capitol Women's Rights Protest - March 3, 2012
Taken at Virginia State Capitol
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150720349477642.471133.48762312641&type=3
That's a GREAT photo Alex ... darn! thx ..wonder where this is at
Arizona Senate Passes Bill Allowing Doctors To Not Inform Women Of Prenatal Issues To Prevent Abortions
Stephen D. Foster Jr. March 7, 2012
It’s called a “wrongful birth” bill and it’s all about preventing women from having an abortion, even if it kills them. The Arizona Senate passed a bill this week that gives doctors a free pass to not inform pregnant women of prenatal problems because such information could lead to an abortion.
In other words, doctors can intentionally keep critical health information from pregnant women and can’t be sued for it. According to the Arizona Capitol Times, [ http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2012/03/06/senate-approves-bill-on-wrongful-births/ ] “the bill’s sponsor is Republican Nancy Barto of Phoenix. She says allowing the medical malpractice lawsuits endorses the idea that if a child is born with a disability, someone is to blame.” So Republicans are banning lawsuits against doctors who keep information from pregnant women so as to prevent them from choosing to have an abortion.
This bill is actually more disturbing than the Republicans seem to realize. Giving doctors such a free pass risks the lives of both the expectant mother and the fetus she carries. Prenatal care isn’t just for discovering birth defects and disabilities. It is also for discovering life threatening issues such as an ectopic pregnancy which often requires an abortion to save the life of the mother. With rare exceptions, ectopic pregnancies are not viable anyway, but Republicans are allowing anti-abortion doctors to keep life threatening information from pregnant women all because they are obsessed with stopping any and all abortions. Women may not know they have a life threatening condition until they die on the emergency room table. And the doctor couldn’t be sued.
This is an egregious bill that will lead to higher mortality rates for infants and mothers. Doctors should be held accountable for not disclosing information learned from prenatal examinations. Pregnant women have the right to know if their future child is going to have a disability or if the pregnancy may require an induced abortion to save their lives. Any decision that is made as a result of the information is the mothers own. Doctors should not be allowed to make decisions for pregnant women as a way to prevent abortions. Women have the right to make their own health decisions and hiding critical information is irresponsible, unconscionable, and risks lives. In the end, Republicans are only putting more lives in jeopardy. They might as well call this the ‘let women die’ bill.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/03/07/arizona-senate-passes-bill-allowing-doctors-to-not-inform-women-of-prenatal-issues-to-prevent-abortions/
Liz Cheney: Desist!
MAUREEN DOWD March 6, 2012
WASHINGTON
Oh, Barack.
You want to analyze the cost and consequences of war before you go to war?
Such a snob. Such a green eyeshade rejection of the red-hot Bush doctrine.
What’s wrong with bomb first and think later? That worked fine in Iraq. Or not.
Mitt Romney believes bombing Iran would be a cakewalk, even though his foreign affairs experience amounts to making sure skiers had a nice downhill run at the Salt Lake City Olympics.
“If Barack Obama is re-elected,” Romney robotically swaggered in Georgia, “Iran will have a nuclear weapon and the world will change if that’s the case.”
That apocalyptic answer came in response to a question from an 11-year-old boy at a pancake breakfast. Romney is channeling Dick Cheney, who wooed voters in 2004 with the cheery mantra that voting for John Kerry would lead to a terrorist attack. Message: You die.
Speaking by satellite to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference here, Romney outpandered himself.
“I will station multiple aircraft carriers and warships at Iran’s door,” he said as if he were playing Risk. Not afraid to employ “military might” (or alarming alliteration), Romney wrote a blank check to Bibi Netanyahu, who governs a nation roiling with reactionary strains, ultra-Orthodox attacks on women and girls and attempts at gender segregation, and increasing global intolerance of the 45-year Palestinian occupation.
As the New Yorker editor David Remnick wrote, Netanyahu and his supporters too often “consider the tenets of liberal democracy to be negotiable in a game of coalition politics.”
Nonetheless, Romney promised that “Israel will know that America stands at its side in all conditions and in all consequence.” We will support Israel when its survival is threatened. But we can’t possibly support every single military action of every single Israeli government.
Romney crudely painted Obama as an Arab sympathizer. “As president, my first foreign trip will not be to Cairo or Riyadh or Ankara,” he said. “It will be to Jerusalem.”
The Israeli fear of an Iranian nuclear weapon must be respected, not least because the regime intent on developing this weapon is the world’s greatest center of Holocaust denial. And the timing is tricky. As Bill Kristol put it, Obama’s urge to wait “would precisely undermine Israel’s ability to determine her fate.”
But I’d feel better if our partner was not the trigger-happy Netanyahu, who makes hysterical arguments even in the absence of a dire threat. At Aipac, he compared those who want to be less hasty than he does to America’s refusal to bomb Auschwitz in 1944.
I’d also feel better if war was not being mongered by the same warmongers who drew us into a decade of futile, bloody, expensive and draining battles.
At Aipac, Liz Cheney urged that we put ourselves in Israeli hands because “America’s track record on predicting when nations reach nuclear capability is abysmal.” She’s right about that, given her father’s wildly erroneous assertions about W.M.D.s in Iraq.
“There is no president,” she outrageously averred, “who has done more to delegitimize and undermine the state of Israel in recent history than President Obama.”
The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, promised “overwhelming force” on Iran if necessary. And John McCain, who is also calling for an international air assault on Syria, agreed with Liz Cheney, arguing that since the U.S. was “surprised” when Pakistan and North Korea got nuclear technology, it was not fair to ask Bibi to rely on Barry’s judgment about when to use force.
Let’s get back to pre-emptive wars!
The campaign sugar daddy of Newt Gingrich (and soon, Romney) is Sheldon Adelson, a multibillionaire casino owner and hawkish Zionist who endorses Gingrich’s view that the Palestinians are “an invented people” who have no historic claim to a homeland. Gingrich told Aipac that “if an Israeli prime minister decides that he has to avoid the threat of a second Holocaust through pre-emptive measures, that I would require no advanced notice to understand why I would support the right of Israel to survive in a dangerous world.”
At a press conference Tuesday, the president excoriated the “bluster” and “big talk” in this political season about bombing Iran. “When I see the casualness with which some of these folks talk about war, I’m reminded of the costs involved in war,” he said, adding: “This is not a game. And there’s nothing casual about it.” There would be consequences for both Israel and America, he cautioned, “if action is taken prematurely.”
“When I visit Walter Reed, when I’ve signed letters to families,” he said, “whose loved ones have not come home, I am reminded that there is a cost.”
And, he noted dryly, “Typically, it’s not the folks who are popping off who pay the price.”
Given our decade of misadventures, it’s astonishing that the hubris still trumps the humility.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/07/opinion/dowd-liz-cheney-desist.html?hp
what a horrible woman the spawn of cheney is .... good god. I'd be so ashamed if I were her .......I'd leave the country
Robert F. Kennedy Jr: Jim Inhofe Is 'Big Oil's Top Call Girl'
By Alana Horowitz 03/ 7/2012 11:54 am
Not all the drama on Tuesday night involved Super Tuesday.
Robert Kennedy Jr. issued a strong criticism of Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) on Twitter.
"Speaking of prostitutes, big oil's top call girl Sen Inhofe wants to kill fuel economy backed by automakers, small biz, enviros, & consumers," he tweeted. [ https://twitter.com/#!/RobertKennedyJr/status/177158442979557376 ]
Inhofe is an outspoken critic of the Environmental Protection Agency and has referred to climate change as "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people." Recently, he sent a letter to EPA head Lisa Jackson demanding a probe of the agency's activities.
Kennedy works for the Natural Resources Defense Council and, according to ABC, was once considered for the EPA's top position.
"It's hard to believe that Robert Kennedy Jr. would choose to use such language -- especially this week," an Inhofe spokesman told Politico, referring to Rush Limbaugh's recent controversy, in which the talk radio host called Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke a "slut" and a "prostitute" for speaking out in favor of the Obama administration's contraception mandate. "I bet he now regrets it."
Kennedy, however, doesn't seem to be backing down. In an apparent shot back at Inhofe, Kennedy on Wednesday tweeted, "To my critics: What do you call a politician -- democrat or republican -- who sells the public interest for money?"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/07/robert-f-kennedy-jr-jim-inhofe_n_1326748.html
Bill O'Reilly on Sandra Fluke........
Rush Limbaugh's vile diatribes against Sandra Fluke have made him a lightning rod for public scorn, and rightly so. But what bothers me more than Rush -- who, let's face it, has a long history of saying vile things -- is the extent to which his views are echoed throughout the world o' wingnuts.
When I checked out tweets using the #IstandWithSandra hashtag on Twitter the other night, I saw Idiocracy-level comments like "Shouldn't that be #ILayWithSandra?" And then, of course, there's Bill O'Reilly.
Yes, the same man who settled a sexual harassment lawsuit in 2004 after apparently being caught on tape by a female employee (read the sordid filing here!) could not resist moralizing about ladies' sex lives on his TV show the other night. Over the course of a smarmy and woefully ill-informed six-minute monologue, O'Reilly dropped pearls of wisdom such as:
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Help uncover the "culture of corruption"
Republicans Cannot Be Trusted to End the Culture of Corruption
A Republican's word isn't worth the breath that forms it.
It's just dead air.
Reality-Based Commentary, Analysis, and Tirades on Politics in America
News and comment not approved by Karl Rove
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We are committed to exposing and actively resisting the Bush Administration.
Even though Bush has been irreparably damaged by Iraq and Hurricane Katrina, his administration's disregard for law, separation of powers, and lack of accountability must be stopped.
We expose the incompetence, the politicization of almost every government function, the secrecy, the deliberate lack of transparency, the nonaccountability, and the disinformation in this administration - an administration that abuses the powers of crony capitalism to enrich itself, the GOP, and the wealthy, while dividing the rest of the nation on religion and wedge issues.
We are an anti-Bush, anti-war, progressive site.
We show only contempt for Bush and his enablers.
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rabid dumbya supporters.....
it's obvious they are mostly ignorant, angry, gullible, and insecure people and need you to tell them so.
This sticker was specifically designed for progressives living in red states or red counties surrounded by right wing extremists.
It's also the perfect "put-down" sticker for the 2006 and 2008 elections.
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Help JACK abram OFF his neocon pals in crime
Reform the nation's capital
Help the Liberals take back America
Support military recruitment of College Republicans!
Defeat political sleaze
The Neocons Exceed Their Known Capacity For Stupidity....
So many GOP hypocrites, so little time
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely
In the Bush Administration, Nothing Succeeds Like Failure.
opprobrium \uh-PRO-bree-uhm\, noun:
1. Disgrace; infamy; reproach mingled with contempt.
2. A cause or object of reproach or disgrace.
would you buy a used car from jack?
Abramoff Investigation “Is Now In The White House”...
Abramoffed; The Abramoff scandal is "simply the currently most visible excrescence of a truly national scandal: the fearful domination of private money over the public interest."
Casino Jack Screws the Indians -- Yet Again
the gop hall of shame:
"It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."-William Shakespeare
dumbya bush
trickie dickie cheney
jack abram off
sean insanity
bullshit o'lielly
druggie limpbaugh "Lord of all Bush apologists."
'cooter' libby
karl 'marx' rove...a real gay guy
bill kristol...not gem quality
cry-on york
derf yarns-weakly non standard
cry-wolf blitzer
sex change coulter...born as adam now is 'ann', hmmmmm
chris wallace...not a mike 4 sure...gop mouthpiece
mark foley- r-fla...a real gay who likes male pages
ken mehlman...a real gay guy
david drier...a real gay guy too
josh bolton...another real gay guy
snottie mcClueless...a lie a day
mary matalin ...snide mary, bad hairdo, bad facelift
john fund ....what a fraud
tucker carlson...choked by a bow tie
kate o'berine...old 60 grit herself
terry jeffrey...old sqeeaky
tony snow...the newest gop snowjob
avoid these neocon tv shows:
Meet the Depressed...NBC
Deface the Nation...CBS
Hide the Real Situation...CNN
The Late Sedition...CNN
Softball...MSNBC
"candid always trumps cryptic"
Bend your heads in sorrow because America used to stand for excellence.
Now, with Bush at Its Helm, it stands for mediocrity, arrogance, torture, and failure.
this is soooooooo true
I shall call him.... MINI ME!
The Scourage of team bush.....Patrick Fitzgerald
His CIA-leak inquiry has cast an unflattering light on the inner workings of the White House and the press. But the tight-lipped federal prosecutor, the son of a Manhattan doorman, has won respect for his independence—a Washington outsider in the best sense of the word.
dumbya is.....
neocons favorite magazine.....
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A MUST READ before posting here....
to all -- re bans, I should perhaps also note that I do have an omnibus 'finally and completely utterly insufferable jackass' rule -- I can be quite patient, especially when dealing with new posters who may not yet have a feel for how I run things here -- but my patience is NOT infinite, and I will NOT indefinitely put up with anyone whose primary purpose here appears to me to be to taunt/bait/disrupt
Freedom Of Speech is guaranteed by America, not iHub, iHub is a privately owned company, and they have their own rules, ones which the posters have agreed to follow.
Another fine point that a lot people seem to miss is that being banned from one or more boards is not denial of free speech if they are still free to post elsewhere here.
iHub is one of the greats because people do not have to put up with childish behavior, fools, and bullies who do not contribute, and cannot disagree without bashing, trashing, and belittling.
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