2010 – Page 47 – Politics Plus

Open Thread – 9/22/2010

Posted by TomCat at 2:04 am Open Thread, Personal

Sep 222010

Yesterday I was feeling pretty down, so I stayed down. I’m feeling a little better, but not at alll at full speed. So what I do for catch up is touch and go. This is normally my volunteer day with a therapy group, but I’m staying home. When I push it when I’m ill, these things are more likely to set-in for the long haul.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 4:13. To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From AP/Google: Senate Republicans on Tuesday moved to strip Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski of her post as top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, further punishing her as she mounts a write-in bid to try to hold onto her seat.

Murkowski already has stepped down from her leadership role in the GOP caucus and could lose her Energy Committee position as soon as Wednesday if the 41-member Republican caucus votes to remove her in a secret ballot.

This is one of those rare occasions in which Democrats should be copying what Republicans do. LIEberman is way overdue.

From Think Progress: Yesterday, NewsMax posted an interview with Tony Perkins, the leader of FRC and a frequent contributor to CNN. Asked why so many Americans question Obama’s Christian faith, Perkins said myths and conspiracy theories about the President’s faith are not his “problem.” Perkins then furthered the myth that Obama is a Muslim by saying that Obama “claims to be a Christian,” but is actually “advancing the idea of the Islamic religion”.

Why does this show that the Supply-side Jesus set are pseudo-Christians? Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

From TPM: Sen. Carl Levin said this afternoon while there is not an agreement finalized yet, the tax cuts debate could begin as early as Thursday.

He said he believes leadership will allow votes on both the Democrats’ middle-class only position and the Republicans’ plan to freeze tax rates at the Bush-era levels including the rich.

This is a debate we need to have, and to better define it for Republicans we should name the Democratic position The Barack HUSSEIN Obama Tax Cut for the Poor and Middle Classes.

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

22chappatte

Happy hump day!!

Obama’s Town Hall Meeting

Posted by TomCat at 12:06 am Politics

Sep 212010

As I am feeling somewhat ill, today’s offering is quite limited. The truth is that I slept through most of this, so I am not qualified to write a substantive review, but here is the video in seven segments and a link to the transcript.

Transcript: Click Here

I did see just enough to realize one key thing. This audience contained non-supporters: lots of them. It was not a Potemkin Village of the type that Republicans universally employ, and I commend Obama for facing his critics. We would not see such courage from a Republican, because they govern exclusively for the benefit of criminal corporations and the richest 1%. To me, it demonstrates that Obama cares.

Open Thread – 9/21/2010

Posted by TomCat at 12:05 am Open Thread, Personal

Sep 212010

Yesterday when writing my articles in the early AM, I felt a little feverish. When I got up the second time, the flu-bug had hit full force, and I felt like something I should have buried in my cat box long ago. I spent the day in bad, and will likely do so again today, after posting a single article in addition to this one. I will catch up with everyone’s comments and blogs as soon as I can.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 3:54. To do it, click here. How did you do?

Lefty Bloggers Plus Report:

Scores:

Week 2

Score

hugos misfits

Recovering Republic…

62.8

105.0

Final

Seahawks Rock

Playin w/out a helm…

83.7

73.9

Final

Jay’s Team

elliot’s Team

85.3

95.0

Final

Greensburg Wombats

Lionel Hutz + The H…

105.7

99.3

Final

Rob’s Roosters

Teabuggery Trashers

116.7

90.8

Final

Standings:

Team

W-L-T

Pct.

GB

Rob’s Roosters

2-0-0

1.000

0.0

Greensburg Wombats

2-0-0

1.000

0.0

Recovering Republicans

2-0-0

1.000

0.0

elliot’s Team

2-0-0

1.000

0.0

Lionel Hutz + The Hail Marys

1-1-0

0.500

1.0

Seahawks Rock

1-1-0

0.500

1.0

Teabuggery Trashers

0-2-0

0.000

2.0

Jay’s Team

0-2-0

0.000

2.0

Playin w/out a helmet

0-2-0

0.000

2.0

hugos misfits

0-2-0

0.000

2.0

I thought I had Rob, but he got mw with a late comeback. May that prove prophetic to his House race in SC.

However, given the way he has humiliated me, my su[pport for his political career is on thin ice. 😉

Short Take:

From nwfdailynews: Authorities say security for last weekend’s canceled Quran burning at a central Florida church cost around $200,000. City officials say they expect the church to pay.

Police Maj. Rick Hanna said more than 200 officers were on duty last weekend patrolling the church, the University of Florida football game and "soft targets" like the mall. Another 160 sheriff’s deputies were also working because of the planned protest at Dove World Outreach Center.

Frankly I hope the community sticks it to these Republican bigots with a vengeance.

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

21fitzsimmons

Patience, please.

Racist Republicans Claim Tea Party Not Racist

Posted by TomCat at 1:41 am Politics

Sep 202010

Personally, I have spied out three local Tea Party events here in Portland. In all I saw signs racially degrading Obama. In none did I see a single non-white face. They love to support racist causes like Arizona’s unconstitutional profiling law and trashing the Fourteenth Amendment. But Republicans continue to claim that the Teabaggers are not racist.

Are the Tea Parties racist organizations? No, said three African-American panelists presented with that question at the third and final day of the “Taking America Back” conference here on Saturday.

But given the fact that the conference was organized by the far-right World Net Daily (WND) and two of the panelists work for the online organization, their verdict was about as surprising as balmy nights and swaying palms on a South Florida summer night. Still, it reflected the anger and resentment that many conservatives have felt over the characterization of the populist Tea Parties as racist.

Many liberals and reporters have pointed out various signs of anti-black racism within the movement, which took root after Barack Obama was elected the nation’s first black president in late 2008. The NAACP brought that criticism to a new level this July, when it passed a resolution asking Tea Party leaders to repudiate followers who use racist language and symbols. The movement was set back on its heels again a few days later, when Mark Williams, chairman of the Tea Party Express, was expelled along with his group from the National Tea Party Federation after he wrote a satirical letter in which he called slavery as “great gig.” Earlier, Dale Robertson, leader of TeaParty.org, wrote an arguably racist E-mail to his followers.

The World Net Daily crowd stands considerably to the right of most Tea Party followers, and it is overwhelmingly white. But the WNDers feel the Tea Parties’ pain, and so the conference offered up what black speakers it had to take on the allegations of racism. They included Erik Rush, a WND columnist; Albert Thompson, executive assistant to Elizabeth Farah, who started WND with her husband Joseph; and Alan Keyes, an ultraconservative activist and oft-times candidate who has called President Obama “a radical communist.”

“There are a few racists in there. In any group, you’re going to find a few people of low character,” Rush said. But, for most in the movement, Rush said, “This has never been about Barack Obama. It’s certainly not about his skin color.”

He spoke to an audience of some 70 people. One of them was black… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <SPLC>

Now, I have no doubt that there are some Teabaggers who are not racists, just as there are some Republicans who are not racists. However, they are a racist party, simply because they are Republicans, who abandoned their commitment to equality when they adopted the Southern Strategy. They consistently use every dirty trick their vile imaginations can muster to disenfranchise minority voters, taking away their right to vote. Why? Most minority voters are poor or middle class, so the Republican party does not govern on their behalf. Republicans govern only for criminal corporations and the richest 1%. So Republicans, and their Teabagger Brown Shirts support racism, and in my book, anyone who supports racism is a racist.

Miller: Nothing but NO

Posted by TomCat at 1:40 am Politics

Sep 202010

While Joe Miller may be slightly more extreme in his views than the average Republican, he goose steps in lock step with the rest when it comes to solutions.

This morning, Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace asked Alaska Republican senatorial candidate Joe Miller about recent data from the Census Bureau which found that a stagering one in seven or 43.6 million Americans [Murdoch delinked] are living in poverty, the highest level since 1994. Noting that Miller had previously claimed that unemployment benefits were unconstitutional Wallace asked, “without unemployment benefits, a lot more, millions more would be living in poverty — what would you do for them?” Miller initially ducked the question, but when Wallace persisted, Miller accused Americans of suffering from an “entitlement mentality” and argued that providing unemployment benefits was not among Congress’ enumerated powers:…

…Watch it:

Miller’s radical tenther views aside, unemployment benefits have become essential in today’s economic climate and have kept millions of American families out of poverty… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

Miller could not even handle the softball questions from the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda. He did not answer what he would do for millions of unemployed Americans, because the answer is nothing. The Republican Party opposes unemployment benefits. In the Senate, they blocked the extension for weeks. In the House, they consistently vote against help for those whose jobs were lost through Republican misgovernment. They do not govern on behalf of such people. They govern exclusively for criminal corporations and the richest 1%. That’s why they hate such expenditures:

Every penny Democrats spend on a Main Street American is a penny Republicans can’t spend on a millionaire.

Open Thread – 9/20/2010

Posted by TomCat at 1:40 am Open Thread, Personal

Sep 202010

Yesterday was a day of religious meditation (NFL). I hope to catch up on comments and returning visits today, but I have a lot of chores to do.

Religious Ecstasy:

DenWeek2

Phew! Losing to the Seachickens requires self-flagellation as penance.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 4:02. To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Boston Globe: BP’s blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico has been killed, five months after an explosion sank a drilling rig and led to the worst offshore oil spill in US history.

It’s all over, except a generation or more of environmental degradation. 🙁

From UKPA/Google: Afghan election observers have raised serious concerns about the weekend parliamentary elections because of reported fraud.

But President Hamid Karzai commended the balloting as a solid success.

My money is on the former.

From TPM: Newt Gingrich got a lot of deserved grief last week for his race-baiting rant about President Obama’s "anti-colonial Kenyan" world view. I’m sure he’ll get much less for his call this weekend for federal legislation banning the imposition of Sharia Law in the United States.

The Newtered One has hit a new low for the manufacture whacky-doodle-do distractions over non-issues.

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

20wolverton

OGIM!!

The Environment: A Republican View

Posted by TomCat at 12:50 am Personal

Sep 192010

I swear! Next Republicans will claim that the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico is good for the environment. It would be no more absurd than this:

Two U.S. senators who toured the oilsands Friday say they were impressed by Alberta’s success in balancing industry with environmental stewardship, but critics say the government tour is biased in favour of development.

Republican senators Lindsey Graham and Saxby Chambliss said the tour, organized by government and industry officials, has persuaded them Alberta is taking a conscientious approach to oilsands development.

"The actual mining is a very small part of the landscape up here, so when you fly over you see a lot of nature and rivers and wilderness," Graham said during a tour of the Syncrude facility in Fort McMurray. "Once you get in the site, it’s just massive . . . It’s a kind of industrial ballet up here."

The two Republicans and Senator Kay Hagan, a Democrat, also toured an area that has been reclaimed.

"From my point of view the environmental issues are being addressed in a responsible way," Graham said. "I am for full-speed-ahead in terms of using Canadian oilsands oil in America."

The tour did not include a visit to aboriginal communities downstream from the oilsands, whose residents believe their water, food and bodies are being poisoned by the operations. The senators did not meet with renowned biologist David Schindler or any other critics of development.

Senator Saxby Chambliss said he was particularly impressed with the technological advances and reclamation efforts…[emphasis added]

Inserted from <Common Dreams>

Here is a reply worth 5,000 words that demonstrates that these Republicans are liars.

(Off topic: See today’s Open Thread for Maher’s New Rules.)

19oilsands1

19oilsands2

19oilsands3

19oilsands4

19oilsands5

The Democratic Dilemma

Posted by TomCat at 12:48 am Plus

Sep 192010

If you look at polls on almost any issue, the people side with the Democrats the vast majority of the time. Given that fact, it should be a no brainer that Democrats should be a shoe-in come November, but that are not. That’s the dilemma. Now what? Here are some ideas.

Victoria Newman is a proud Democrat who says that when she voted for Barack Obama in 2008, it was the most excited she’d been about politics in all her 58 years. But now, Democrats grasping to keep control of Congress will have to do without her.

Newman says she’s planning to stay home on Election Day.

As she pays for a package of corn muffins at a grocery store, Newman, a retired state employee who’s black, sums up her feelings about voting in November’s congressional elections with a dismissive flick of her wrist.

To retain House control, Democrats must find a way to reactivate core supporters and re-energize the independent and new voters who handed Obama the White House and swept Democrats into office.

It’s a tall order in dozens of competitive districts where enthusiasm for the president is at a low; even some of his strongest backers aren’t motivated to go to the polls.

The challenge is boosting Republicans’ hopes of winning the 40 seats they need to seize the House in a year when a sagging economy and disillusionment with Obama have created a grim outlook for the majority party.

National surveys show Republicans are far more enthusiastic than Democrats about the election. The latest Associated Press-GfK Poll found Obama voters are much less attuned to the fall contests than are those who supported Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona in the 2008 presidential race… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <AP/Google>

Part of the problem is Democratic mistakes. Even before Obama’s inauguration Republicans were in full attack mode. Democrats should have counterattacked forcefully. Instead, they spent a year and a half accomplishing what they could in the face of unyielding opposition, and kissing elephant butt trying to get just a vote or two, which rarely happened. They accomplished some good things, but when they did, the Republicans attacked the accomplishments. Now from a media perspective, and bot even counting the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda at Fox, attacks are better infotainment than accomplishments and sell no soap, so the public knows all about the attacks, but very little about the accomplishments. Thus, Democrats allowed Republicans to dominate the news.

Part of the problem is that the economy has not recovered, as voters hoped it would. I and other well informed people knew it would not, because the Republican damage to the economy was far too severe to undo in the short term. Adding to the problem, Obama appointed Geithner, Bernanke and Summers, banksters all, in the mistaken belief that only someone who knew the system could save it. Republican obstruction also slowed recovery.

At this point, our best hope is to educate voters about the nature of the choice before them. With all the Democrats’ flaws, they are far better for the poor and middle classes than the Republicans, because Democrats represent the majority of Americans. Republicans, on the other hand, have demonstrated that they only have one policy: No Millionaire Left Behind. That is the choice.

Consider this ad from Barbara Boxer (H/T Daily Kos)

Barbara has the right idea, here. We need to focus the choice on this. Who should represent America, the party that governs on behalf of most Americans or the party that governs on behalf of the top 1%?

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