*Rolling Stones
**Bill Maher read verbatim the exchanges between Anthony Weiner and a Las Vegas casino worker. That actually was the scandal. Check it out on YouTube or Democraticunderground. You'll see what I mean. Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats called on Weiner to resign after it was discovered he innocently tweeted an under-aged girl. Even though it was innocent, in light of the past week the texting sounded hinky. But how can you have a Boehner in the House, if you don't have a Weiner.
**Jack Germond appeared again in the Daily Beast and wrote a column suggesting that even though all news is terrible, President Obama may not have a worry in the world given his GOP competitors. Germond mentions that Mitt Romney suffers from the same disease his father did, the inability to explain policy changes in a convincing manner. He likens Dad's Vietnam gaffe with Mitt's evasion on the individual mandates in his Massachusetts health care law. So far Jack says that Mitt is front-runner solely because he was second to McCain last time and that's how it works in Republican circles. Germond says it's still true that you have to have something or somebody in order to beat President Obama.
**The fallout from the Newt implosion continues. Apparently, the staff didn't want to sell books and films and told Newt to get rid of the souvenir stand of Newt,Inc.
**The next Very Serious Person--Republicans seem to generate alot of them these days--is Texas Governor Rick Perry. He is charming and has swagger. He has one of the best employment records in the nation. He is a natural fund-raiser. I suggest he run with Todd Palin, the first secessionist ticket since the Civil War. Mark MacKinnon is saying that there is no reason for Perry not to run. His wife and children want him to and Newt's two top campaign aides are in his inner circle. Beltway operatives said quietly that he's crazy as a loon. Others whisper that there are some things that haven't come out yet. And we do know he has a long history of courting the most extreme right entities in the country. He is hosting a Prayer meeting with AFA, the extreme Right Christian organization that showcases the rantings of Bryan Fisher. Making a guest appearance at the meeting is Rev. Hagee,who is more of a Zionist than Bibi and is rabidly anit-Catholic. Stay tuned. If Perry runs, he could be highly dangerous to the nation.
**The Other Very Serious Person is Tim Pawlenty, who seems to have become delusional with his economic plan. Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post gutted it by suggesting that the United States has never seen a 5 percent growth rate for 10 years as TPaw imagines. Marcus also goes on to reproduce the independent economic think tank analysis of TPaw bankrupting the country. Perhaps conservatives are beginning to wake up. The Manhattan Institute's Josh Barro in the City Journal slams Pawlenty's plan noting that America hasn't had 5% growth rates for a ten year period since 1941 to 1959, which saw WWII, the recovery from the Great Depression and massive exports to Europe for reconstruction. He de-constructs Pawlenty's fiscal proposals even if we had high growth rates and concludes with great precision how they would not succeed. Bruce Barlett has already crossed the Rubican saying that the United States only had a ten year growth period from President Bush through Clinton. The concern is that Pawlenty will spark more tax-cutting madness from Mitt Romney, who in his 4th incarnation claims we are on the brink of losing our free market system.
** New Jersey's Governor Chris Chrissie is already in trouble with the courts for stealing $1 billion from the public school system. Now he wants to privatize it and has offered public schools in under-performing districts to private corporations. This comes at the same time he has announced a $400 million cut in Medicaid. The disease seems to be spreading throughout the country with the newly elected Republican governors.
**We will all look back on the 2009-2010 Congress as the high water mark of legislative activity. The Senate now literally spends one-third of its time doing nothing. After two and a half years, the Obama Administration still lacks key personnel because of the constant GOP threats at filibustering. Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell had reached a gentlemen's agreement at the end of last term that the GOP would use the filibuster sparingly on nominations to the executive branch. Apparently, this hasn't worked. Also, President Obama has seen the fewest of his judicial nominees approved since the days of Jimmy Carter.
**Alabama has surpassed Arizona with the most restrictive immigration act. Hispanic activists have told immigrants--legal and illegal--to get out of the state because it is so repressive. The state also just passed a "fetal pain" bill, which seriously restricts abortion,letting them join in the roll call of states that are waging a war against the uteri.
**If I'm not mistaken, Louisiana and Tennessee have basically over-ruled Roe v. Wade. Does anyone remember Griswold versus Connecticut? This was a case brought by a middle-class married couple to challenge that state's prohibition against contraceptives. I was very young when the case was decided and contraceptives were legalized by the Supreme Court. Now not only are abortion procedures under attack but with "personhood" bills the whole concept of contraception is being challenged at the state level. Why now?
**Remember the ads that said the most dangerous place for African-Americans is in the womb? Now pro-lifers are running these in Spanish saying the most dangerous place for Hispanics was in the womb. I thought it was Arizona and Alabama. This will be the meme used by the Republicans to try and suppress the Hispanic turnout for Democrats.
**We have the motherlode of e-mails from Sarah Palin's short tenure as Governor thanks to David Corn of Mother Jones. Corn liked the Alaska FOIA laws and decided to file suit during the 2008 campaign for all of Sarah Palin's e-mails. What looked like a relatively cheap and short enterprise only just ended because e-mails had to be acquired from state employees when Palin used her private e-mail accounts. The problem has been that Alaska published the e-mails on paper and provided the news media with all of them, which now have to be scanned for easy access. The highlights of Troopergate, the Bridge to Nowhere and the whole courting of Palin by the McCain campiagn are there. But it's what has been redacted seems to raise questions. The e-mail about Cheney's views on Alaskan oil all blacked out, the potential conflicts of interest by Todd Palin kept quiet, and assorted teasers on potential scandals. One I liked was that the Koch Brothers weren't making enough profit so they threatened Palin that they would cut jobs if she didn't reduce the state's share of their oil revenues. So far, there are no bombshells but they make for an entertaining read.
**The White House has requested that the debt ceiling be raised by July 4th. Now legislators are going to meet three days a week to resolve the issue of what cuts will occur. John Boehner is insisting on double the cuts to the amount raised. The Senate has one team working to propose a combination of cuts and revenue and the Vice President has another group working. Meanwhile China is claiming that we are already defaulting.
** A momentary default will cost the United States $1.2 trillion. But this stuff doesn't seem to faze the GOP in the slightest.
**Leftwing bloggers are writing fast and furious about the GOP's effort to sabotage the economy. I can't say I disagree. I really have not come to any conclusion yet whether the GOP really believes what it says these days or whether it is all a ploy. I am beginning to be concerned with the nutty proposals being made by the presidential candidates and the radical actions by GOP governors that they really might believe their Randian economics. It seems to me that a reporter should try and get these people to lay out the full implicatons of their policies. What kind of America will be left for anyone.
**Some wag got off a great line--"America can not afford the rich and corporations anymore."
Showing posts with label Chris Chrissie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chris Chrissie. Show all posts
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Oh Great, More Shining Objects
If you want to see Weiner's weiner,you can see the Breibart leaked penis shot at Gawker.com.
Howard Stern says he wants to have sex with Rachel Maddow.
Rachel Maddow thinks David Vitter, the Republican Senator from Lousiana should resign because he was a frequent customer of madams in D.C. and New Orleans. What Ms Maddow doesn't realize is that Vitter has the winning charm of wearing beautiful lingerie, according to the madam in New Orleans. This counters his habit of weaing diapers in D.C. And should give him a by.
And those are the high points of the week.
I'm curious to know whether any statements by Republicans vying in the Presidential primaries will be used against them in the general election. Maybe it's just the summer silly season but there have been some real corkers. Is the winning strategy of people like Romney and Huntsman just to be pummelled by the crazies so they look moderate and sane for the general election?
Romney was in Michigan for fund-raising. He was rightly attacked by local Republicans and former Democratic governor Jennifer Granholm for telling "Detroit To Drop Dead" in his statements against the bailout of the auto industry.
But he was also blasted for his statements saying that humans contributed to climate change. Rush Limbaugh said Romney's position on climate change means,"By,By Nomination."
Jon Huntsman has been blasted in video ads on RINOS for his role as a Western governor in forming an alliance with other governors, including The Arnold, to promote alternative energy sources to combat climate change. The religious Right is also attacking him on his support for civil unions for gay partners.
But we have some wingdings.
Herman Cain says he won't sign a bill over 3 pages long. That's great. What would that do to the defense appropriations bill. Cain wants loyalty tests for Muslims and will hire gays because they won't support Sharia Law. His solution to illegal immigration is to build the equvalent of the great Wall of China and have a moat filled with alligators on the border with Mexico. Cain also will join Joey Lieberman at Glenn Beck's "Restore Courage" rally in Jerusalem. Cain is also noted for not knowing what the right to return is but he did say,"You mess with Israel, you mess with America." He currently is tracking at about 10% in the polls.
Frothy Mix Santorum will outlaw gay marriage by insisting on a constitutional amendment outlawing same sex marriage. He also denounced the exceptions for a woman's health on abortion bills as ludicrous. And he denounced climate change as "junk science".
Rudy Guiliani, according to Bill Kristol, will throw his Yankee camp in the ring and run for the nomination. Rudy has been tough on Romney the last two weeks and has been in New Hampshire regularly.
South Carolina lawmakers are now making the pilgrimage to New Jersey to court Chris Chrissie for a run for the nomination. The Governor seems to making the appropriate moves. He's introduced anti-labor legislation so he can don the Scott Walker crown and he has succumbed to the Koch Brothers' pressure and moved away from the state's alternative energy program, which had been successful.
The Magical Mystery Tour is soon to begin. Six Republican contenders (?) will be travelling the country together on a bus. Included in this strange adventure will be Newt, Michelle Bachmann and Greg Johnson. I think Ringo Starr should join them. Unfortunately, the way things are going, Ringo would soon be the odds-on favorite for the nomination.
The Tea Party Patriots, claiming to represent 3,000 affiliated groups, is against the Tea Party Express' endorsement of Mitt Romney. The Patriots' co-founder Jenny Beth Martin said there is no grass-roots support for Mitt and that they do not believe they should automatically endorse the Republican nomination.
Newt's campaign has collapsed. Senior strategists and key aides--the high command--have quit en masse because the direction of the campaign wasn't compatible with Newt's vision.
Wisconsin is not only running fake Democrats against the Republicans in the recall elections, they are redistricting Paul Ryan's district so that it will be even redder because they worry he will be seriously challenged this year.
Polls show that Americans are split on raising the debt ceiling limit. The problem is that they do not know what it is and actually believe it is a license to increase deficit spending, which will happen anyway. Americans are also unaware of how much the Bush tax cuts contributed to the debt problem but are accurately aware of the cost of the wars and the Medicare Plan D. Talk Progress celebrated yesterday's 10th anniversary of the Bush tax cuts by listing all the programs that could have been funded if we still had the $2.5 trillion they cost the government.
By now, most Americans realize that Paul Ryan is not an economist and knows nothing about Medicare. But is there no political price one pays for flat out lying about the debt ceiling. Ryan really did say that defaulting on our debt would be a good thing. There is no known economist or economic policy type on the Right, Middle or Left who believes this in the least. Ryan's statements were not just bluster or gaming the negotiations with the President on cuts, they were flat out ignorance. The very scary news is that House Republicans really, really believe this nonsense. This goes beyond Thomas Frank's analysis of the Wrecking Crew. This is the Demolition Team.
Is the current Republican insanity just based on their animus against President Obama or are they simply doubling down on a failed ideology without regard to its consequences?
If you are Center-right in inclination, you have to be in a panic when you read Tim Pawlenty's economic program or Newt's more modest calls for the eradication of parts of the government. Pawlenty's program as I wrote yesterday will be Bush on steroids, plunging America to a point where it really could never recover. These are not debatable statements. This is reality-based conclusions. Pawlenty is more radical than Ryan--both plans plunging America into a century of enormous debt and destroying what fig leaves are left of our social welfare net.
If you hold these views, I think you owe an explanation to the public about what happens after you have dismantled local, state and federal government and public education, how does your plan actually create wealth and jobs? No one on any side believes that tax cuts have created any jobs and enhanced the economy of the country. So, besides despising this country, what possible benefits--and to whom--are these crazy programs?
Contrary to leftwing critics of these zany programs, I seriously believe none of these programs benefit the real, productive private sector. Companies do not want to locate in areas with poor educational systems and a deteriorating infrastructure. Nor do they want to recruit a labor force from a population scrambling around to pay their bills day after day. Even companies in the Third World require massive government breaks and tax holidays to accept this degree of risk in their investment. This includes the extraction industries as well. Then you throw on top of this the government's possible default on its debt, just because that is your ideology, then you have a recipe for real capital flight.
The heat must be getting to me but it's alarming to see MSNBC say we have to treat the Michelle Bachmann candidacy seriously. What's serious about it? The candidate is not a serious person with serious views. Is the seriousness in it because she might win?
Let's look at today's litmus tests for the 2012 Republican nomination. You must be absolutely anti-abortion--and now we are inching toward anti-birth control. You must be anti-climate change--even if you don't propose to do anything about it. You must be anti-alternative energy sources and devoted only to fossil fuels. You must be anti-public education. You must be anti-immigrant. You must be anti-woman. You must be anti-minorities. You must be anti-union. You must be anti-Medicare. And, inching its way back, you might have to become anti-social security. You must be anti-evolution and pro-creationist. And you have to be absolutely against taxes.
With only 35% of Americans believing the country is heading in the right direction, Reuters has Obama at 50% approval rating and he leads all Republican rivals by double digits, even Romney by 13%. The leading Republicans are Palin at 22%, Romney at 20% and Ron Paul and Herman Cain are tied at 7%.
James Carville, who has never been a fan of President Obama, says that if the economy creates jobs on the average of the last three months, minus the disasterous number of last month, Obama wins. But Carville said something else, which didn't get much coverage. He believes there is rage building up n this country, which will lead to social unrest and upheaval. I think of the decades leading up to the election of FDR, where America is torn by violent labor strife and repression. It was 100 years ago but it feels similar to today.
The new Gallup poll reports that 45% of Americans now identify themselves as Democrats, while only 39% are Republicans. This is the largest gap since October 2009, when Democrats led Republicans by 7 percentage points. Does this reflect the cost of the GOP entertaining truly suicidal ideas? Or is this just temporary?
Howard Stern says he wants to have sex with Rachel Maddow.
Rachel Maddow thinks David Vitter, the Republican Senator from Lousiana should resign because he was a frequent customer of madams in D.C. and New Orleans. What Ms Maddow doesn't realize is that Vitter has the winning charm of wearing beautiful lingerie, according to the madam in New Orleans. This counters his habit of weaing diapers in D.C. And should give him a by.
And those are the high points of the week.
I'm curious to know whether any statements by Republicans vying in the Presidential primaries will be used against them in the general election. Maybe it's just the summer silly season but there have been some real corkers. Is the winning strategy of people like Romney and Huntsman just to be pummelled by the crazies so they look moderate and sane for the general election?
Romney was in Michigan for fund-raising. He was rightly attacked by local Republicans and former Democratic governor Jennifer Granholm for telling "Detroit To Drop Dead" in his statements against the bailout of the auto industry.
But he was also blasted for his statements saying that humans contributed to climate change. Rush Limbaugh said Romney's position on climate change means,"By,By Nomination."
Jon Huntsman has been blasted in video ads on RINOS for his role as a Western governor in forming an alliance with other governors, including The Arnold, to promote alternative energy sources to combat climate change. The religious Right is also attacking him on his support for civil unions for gay partners.
But we have some wingdings.
Herman Cain says he won't sign a bill over 3 pages long. That's great. What would that do to the defense appropriations bill. Cain wants loyalty tests for Muslims and will hire gays because they won't support Sharia Law. His solution to illegal immigration is to build the equvalent of the great Wall of China and have a moat filled with alligators on the border with Mexico. Cain also will join Joey Lieberman at Glenn Beck's "Restore Courage" rally in Jerusalem. Cain is also noted for not knowing what the right to return is but he did say,"You mess with Israel, you mess with America." He currently is tracking at about 10% in the polls.
Frothy Mix Santorum will outlaw gay marriage by insisting on a constitutional amendment outlawing same sex marriage. He also denounced the exceptions for a woman's health on abortion bills as ludicrous. And he denounced climate change as "junk science".
Rudy Guiliani, according to Bill Kristol, will throw his Yankee camp in the ring and run for the nomination. Rudy has been tough on Romney the last two weeks and has been in New Hampshire regularly.
South Carolina lawmakers are now making the pilgrimage to New Jersey to court Chris Chrissie for a run for the nomination. The Governor seems to making the appropriate moves. He's introduced anti-labor legislation so he can don the Scott Walker crown and he has succumbed to the Koch Brothers' pressure and moved away from the state's alternative energy program, which had been successful.
The Magical Mystery Tour is soon to begin. Six Republican contenders (?) will be travelling the country together on a bus. Included in this strange adventure will be Newt, Michelle Bachmann and Greg Johnson. I think Ringo Starr should join them. Unfortunately, the way things are going, Ringo would soon be the odds-on favorite for the nomination.
The Tea Party Patriots, claiming to represent 3,000 affiliated groups, is against the Tea Party Express' endorsement of Mitt Romney. The Patriots' co-founder Jenny Beth Martin said there is no grass-roots support for Mitt and that they do not believe they should automatically endorse the Republican nomination.
Newt's campaign has collapsed. Senior strategists and key aides--the high command--have quit en masse because the direction of the campaign wasn't compatible with Newt's vision.
Wisconsin is not only running fake Democrats against the Republicans in the recall elections, they are redistricting Paul Ryan's district so that it will be even redder because they worry he will be seriously challenged this year.
Polls show that Americans are split on raising the debt ceiling limit. The problem is that they do not know what it is and actually believe it is a license to increase deficit spending, which will happen anyway. Americans are also unaware of how much the Bush tax cuts contributed to the debt problem but are accurately aware of the cost of the wars and the Medicare Plan D. Talk Progress celebrated yesterday's 10th anniversary of the Bush tax cuts by listing all the programs that could have been funded if we still had the $2.5 trillion they cost the government.
By now, most Americans realize that Paul Ryan is not an economist and knows nothing about Medicare. But is there no political price one pays for flat out lying about the debt ceiling. Ryan really did say that defaulting on our debt would be a good thing. There is no known economist or economic policy type on the Right, Middle or Left who believes this in the least. Ryan's statements were not just bluster or gaming the negotiations with the President on cuts, they were flat out ignorance. The very scary news is that House Republicans really, really believe this nonsense. This goes beyond Thomas Frank's analysis of the Wrecking Crew. This is the Demolition Team.
Is the current Republican insanity just based on their animus against President Obama or are they simply doubling down on a failed ideology without regard to its consequences?
If you are Center-right in inclination, you have to be in a panic when you read Tim Pawlenty's economic program or Newt's more modest calls for the eradication of parts of the government. Pawlenty's program as I wrote yesterday will be Bush on steroids, plunging America to a point where it really could never recover. These are not debatable statements. This is reality-based conclusions. Pawlenty is more radical than Ryan--both plans plunging America into a century of enormous debt and destroying what fig leaves are left of our social welfare net.
If you hold these views, I think you owe an explanation to the public about what happens after you have dismantled local, state and federal government and public education, how does your plan actually create wealth and jobs? No one on any side believes that tax cuts have created any jobs and enhanced the economy of the country. So, besides despising this country, what possible benefits--and to whom--are these crazy programs?
Contrary to leftwing critics of these zany programs, I seriously believe none of these programs benefit the real, productive private sector. Companies do not want to locate in areas with poor educational systems and a deteriorating infrastructure. Nor do they want to recruit a labor force from a population scrambling around to pay their bills day after day. Even companies in the Third World require massive government breaks and tax holidays to accept this degree of risk in their investment. This includes the extraction industries as well. Then you throw on top of this the government's possible default on its debt, just because that is your ideology, then you have a recipe for real capital flight.
The heat must be getting to me but it's alarming to see MSNBC say we have to treat the Michelle Bachmann candidacy seriously. What's serious about it? The candidate is not a serious person with serious views. Is the seriousness in it because she might win?
Let's look at today's litmus tests for the 2012 Republican nomination. You must be absolutely anti-abortion--and now we are inching toward anti-birth control. You must be anti-climate change--even if you don't propose to do anything about it. You must be anti-alternative energy sources and devoted only to fossil fuels. You must be anti-public education. You must be anti-immigrant. You must be anti-woman. You must be anti-minorities. You must be anti-union. You must be anti-Medicare. And, inching its way back, you might have to become anti-social security. You must be anti-evolution and pro-creationist. And you have to be absolutely against taxes.
With only 35% of Americans believing the country is heading in the right direction, Reuters has Obama at 50% approval rating and he leads all Republican rivals by double digits, even Romney by 13%. The leading Republicans are Palin at 22%, Romney at 20% and Ron Paul and Herman Cain are tied at 7%.
James Carville, who has never been a fan of President Obama, says that if the economy creates jobs on the average of the last three months, minus the disasterous number of last month, Obama wins. But Carville said something else, which didn't get much coverage. He believes there is rage building up n this country, which will lead to social unrest and upheaval. I think of the decades leading up to the election of FDR, where America is torn by violent labor strife and repression. It was 100 years ago but it feels similar to today.
The new Gallup poll reports that 45% of Americans now identify themselves as Democrats, while only 39% are Republicans. This is the largest gap since October 2009, when Democrats led Republicans by 7 percentage points. Does this reflect the cost of the GOP entertaining truly suicidal ideas? Or is this just temporary?
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Mitch Daniels Out, Cain In and Newt Melts Down
Mitch Daniels sent out an e-mail last night to supporters alerting them to his decision not to run for President. He basically said that he made the decision for family reasons. It's sad that all the Republicans who bow out seem to gain stature in my eyes than those who stay in. I thought Mitch Daniels statement was nicely phrased and fairly modest. He did not claim like Donald Trump that he would have won or like Mike Huckabee that his support was national, not regional. The business wing of the Republican party supported Daniels and he would have access to the Bush money-making machine if he had decided to run. It's a tribute to Daniels that he didn't buy into the Beltway hype and the GOP punditry claiming he was the One.
But Herman Cain announced before an enthusiastic crowd of 10,000 in Atlanta that once he is elected he can say ,"Free at Last, Free at Last" and that Martin's dream would have been fulfilled. The 65-year old pizza salesman is a tea party favorite and the winner of the South Carolina debate. The twitter feeds when he announced were really amazing. He has the type of following one usually associates with Ron Paul.
Newt continues his metldown. On Face the Nation this morning he still tried to weasle out of his criticism of Paul Ryan and at first denied he had talked about him on Meet the Press the previous week until they played the clip. Then he was asked about the Tiffany Charge Account. Here, Newt revealed how out of touch with reality he is. He first explained that he has no debt, no second home ,only a rental in Wisconsin with a mortgage and he has been a successful small businessman--contrary to the "Obama model". So if he and Callista buy stuff at Tiffany's they are private citizens and can do what they want. Then he tried to explain how his Tiffany's account didn't charge interest--that's a way to win the average voters' heart. So you are left hanging about a huge jewelry bill, which finally Newt snapped that you'll have to ask Tiffany's about that.
For someone who has contemplated running for President for decades, Newt certainly is not a prime time player. He has been all over the map on almost every issue and it's not been a full month. He doesn't even remind me of when he was a guerrilla leader and a bomb-thrower. He resembles a suicide bomber more than anything.
Tomorrow we see how Tim Pawlenty can excite the crowds. Already he has taken friendly fire, his predecessor Arne Carlson, a Republican, charged that Pawlenty created a state deficit that as a percentage of the budget was worse than California. John McCain seriously considered Pawlenty for his vice-presidential candidate because he admired his working-class background and how he worked his way up to be a lawyer and then entering politics. There are serious problems with Pawlenty but none greater than he is boring and lackluster.
Old Frothy Mix Santorum decided to get into the torture debate after John McCain revealed what Leon Panetta told him about the killing of bin Laden. Santorum actually said that McCain didn't understand how torture worked, that you break someone down and they tell you everything. McCain, someone who has been tortured frequently over a period of years, did in fact talk about how the tortured will say absolutely anything to stop the pain. Santorum's attack was met with disbelief by the McCain family and a funny response from the Senator's staff who said,Who?" Mark Salter, McCain's alter-ego,posted on his Facebook that Santorum was the dumbest person he ever met in the years he served in the Senate. A couple of days ago Santorum apologized for his comment--sort of.
Mitt Romney was hailed for having a telethon in Las Vegas where his rich backers used their rolodexes to raise more than $10 million in a day. Somehow that doesn't seem that great. Ron Paul's money bombs usually net $1 million after one of his appearances and no one has to make a call.
The new New York Magazine has a long piece on how Glenn Beck was fired from Fox. But the main point of the piece is how Roger Ailes aspires to being the arbiter of who will be the GOP presidential nominee and his endless war against the Obama Administration. Ailes comes across as a shrewd political operator with all the freaky ideas we associate with super-rich people. You could imagine he and the Koch Brothers talking about eugenics. He actually believed that Obama was going to create a private police force.
The piece details how Ailes tried to get Sarah Palin to lay low after Gaby Giffords was shot in Tucson only to have her cut her "blood libel" video. Ailes has been trying to get Sarah to make a decision about running for President for months so he can re-program Fox.
But the Republican he loves is New Jersey Governor Chris Chrissie ,whom he hosted at his Hudson River house along with Rush Limbaugh. Despite Ailes' pleading, the governor refused to commit to run for President this year. A group of Iowa Republicans will be travelling out to New Jersey to make another pitch soon.
But so far the GOP race is looking like a Romney-Pawlenty contest. This is driving republicans to despair.
The most attractive candidate is Jon Huntsman but the comments on right-wing blogs have been universally scathing. Also, he did not do himself any favors by virtually changing all his positions in a week to make himself more acceptable to the Right.
But Herman Cain announced before an enthusiastic crowd of 10,000 in Atlanta that once he is elected he can say ,"Free at Last, Free at Last" and that Martin's dream would have been fulfilled. The 65-year old pizza salesman is a tea party favorite and the winner of the South Carolina debate. The twitter feeds when he announced were really amazing. He has the type of following one usually associates with Ron Paul.
Newt continues his metldown. On Face the Nation this morning he still tried to weasle out of his criticism of Paul Ryan and at first denied he had talked about him on Meet the Press the previous week until they played the clip. Then he was asked about the Tiffany Charge Account. Here, Newt revealed how out of touch with reality he is. He first explained that he has no debt, no second home ,only a rental in Wisconsin with a mortgage and he has been a successful small businessman--contrary to the "Obama model". So if he and Callista buy stuff at Tiffany's they are private citizens and can do what they want. Then he tried to explain how his Tiffany's account didn't charge interest--that's a way to win the average voters' heart. So you are left hanging about a huge jewelry bill, which finally Newt snapped that you'll have to ask Tiffany's about that.
For someone who has contemplated running for President for decades, Newt certainly is not a prime time player. He has been all over the map on almost every issue and it's not been a full month. He doesn't even remind me of when he was a guerrilla leader and a bomb-thrower. He resembles a suicide bomber more than anything.
Tomorrow we see how Tim Pawlenty can excite the crowds. Already he has taken friendly fire, his predecessor Arne Carlson, a Republican, charged that Pawlenty created a state deficit that as a percentage of the budget was worse than California. John McCain seriously considered Pawlenty for his vice-presidential candidate because he admired his working-class background and how he worked his way up to be a lawyer and then entering politics. There are serious problems with Pawlenty but none greater than he is boring and lackluster.
Old Frothy Mix Santorum decided to get into the torture debate after John McCain revealed what Leon Panetta told him about the killing of bin Laden. Santorum actually said that McCain didn't understand how torture worked, that you break someone down and they tell you everything. McCain, someone who has been tortured frequently over a period of years, did in fact talk about how the tortured will say absolutely anything to stop the pain. Santorum's attack was met with disbelief by the McCain family and a funny response from the Senator's staff who said,Who?" Mark Salter, McCain's alter-ego,posted on his Facebook that Santorum was the dumbest person he ever met in the years he served in the Senate. A couple of days ago Santorum apologized for his comment--sort of.
Mitt Romney was hailed for having a telethon in Las Vegas where his rich backers used their rolodexes to raise more than $10 million in a day. Somehow that doesn't seem that great. Ron Paul's money bombs usually net $1 million after one of his appearances and no one has to make a call.
The new New York Magazine has a long piece on how Glenn Beck was fired from Fox. But the main point of the piece is how Roger Ailes aspires to being the arbiter of who will be the GOP presidential nominee and his endless war against the Obama Administration. Ailes comes across as a shrewd political operator with all the freaky ideas we associate with super-rich people. You could imagine he and the Koch Brothers talking about eugenics. He actually believed that Obama was going to create a private police force.
The piece details how Ailes tried to get Sarah Palin to lay low after Gaby Giffords was shot in Tucson only to have her cut her "blood libel" video. Ailes has been trying to get Sarah to make a decision about running for President for months so he can re-program Fox.
But the Republican he loves is New Jersey Governor Chris Chrissie ,whom he hosted at his Hudson River house along with Rush Limbaugh. Despite Ailes' pleading, the governor refused to commit to run for President this year. A group of Iowa Republicans will be travelling out to New Jersey to make another pitch soon.
But so far the GOP race is looking like a Romney-Pawlenty contest. This is driving republicans to despair.
The most attractive candidate is Jon Huntsman but the comments on right-wing blogs have been universally scathing. Also, he did not do himself any favors by virtually changing all his positions in a week to make himself more acceptable to the Right.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Political Rip Rap
43% of Americans in a CBS News Poll say that jobs should be the number 1 priority for government. With 12 straight months of private sector job growth, 9 out of 10 economists believe the recovery has become self-propelled and increasing. They've changed their predictions now to a 3.2-3.4% growth rate for each upcoming quarter. In the last year, the private sector has added 1.3 million jobs, topping the total private sector job creation record of 8 years of the George W. Bush Administration.
So while President Obama is going to speak about various aspects of getting the economy going and making a transition for a prosperous future,what is the GOP policy for the same? No program. No problem. The House GOP just issued a press release claiming credit for all job creation since the 2010 mid-terms. They said, "we created jobs." How? Don't ask. It's stunning but not unexpected.
The next great legislative feat the House GOP plans is to repeal public campaign finance--that's the little box on your income tax form to check if you want a couple of bucks to go to political campaigns. And if you don't get where this is going, yesterday the Tea Party announced a nation-wide campaign against voter fraud. As I've written the Tea Party and the Wisconsin GOP teamed up for a voter suppression effort against students and minorities in the mid-terms and can claim the defeat of Russ Feingold.
Voters have been fast to register buyers' remorse. John Kasich, the new Governor of Ohio, has a whopping 30% approval rate, only couple of weeks into his term. Kasich used the Wayback machine to produce the first all-white cabinet in Ohio since the 1960s. He also won the hearts and minds of voters by refusing the federal funding for high speed rail ,which would have linked major cities in his state and been a major connection between the Northeast and the Illinois part of the new system. The same rapid downfall happened with New Jersey's Chris Chrissie, who dreams of the White House with his own approval rating in the dumpster.
In 1994, with the Gingrich Revolution, 37% of Americans believed the GOP would bring the right kind of change. Today, only 25% say the same for the Boehner Revolution, according to NBC polls. The GOP honeymoon seems about over--CBS reports that the GOP now has a 49% disapproval rating.
While taking credit for the economic recovery in the country, the new GOP House plans to pass a budget cut bill soon, which would call for a 15% reduction in all agencies dealing with domestic services. While businesses do this to maximize their profit margin, what happens to government? Do these 15% soon count as unemployed? Will they be considered lazy counch potatoes when the unemployment runs out?
One of their class act cuts will be to Head Start, throwing some 389,000 children out of the program.
You have to love Colin Powell, he still doesn't get how wacky the GOP has become. He said that cutting funding for PBS would not cut the deficit. Of course, not. You do that because they fired Juan Williams. It's about revenge not about the deficit. Poor Colin suggested cutting the military.
The NYTIMES/CBS poll shows that 55% of Americans want cuts to the military; 21% Medicare; and 13% to Social Security.
For some reason, the House GOP wants to cut 4,000 FBI agents. Probably because they are under the Department of Justice, which is run by Eric Holder. Sorry, it's as simple as that.
Peggy Noonan is on the sauce again. She seemed to have discovered Obama was an eloquent man during the Tucson speech but now moans why when the country is in crisis does it elect people like Jimm Carter or Barack Obama.
That poll I wanted about Palin versus Obama in Texas is in. Palin beats Obama by 46-45. He ties the Governor Rick Perry and is behind the other GOP contenders by about 5 points.
Ben Stein isn't impressed with the GOP field for 2012 and suggests that Barack Obama show run as a Republican. Maybe that's what's behind Rasmussen having Obama at 52% approval rating. It probably means it really is about 70% given Rasmussen's business links to Fox News.
Mitt Romney won the first official strawpoll in New Hampshire. But then again, the dirty secret is that Mitt's operatives are known to pay voters in straw polls. It's part of the strategy for maintaining a presence.
Will Mitt Romney being a Mormon hurt him now that America has been exposed to Glenn Beck? Before we only knew Mormons from Orrin Hatch and Brent Scowcroft. If they are as crazy as Beck, can you really trust them in power? Another question is whether Glenn and his wife wear the Mormon magic underwear when they have sex? Romney said he doesn't because they itch.
Michelle Bachmann, the Queen of the Tea Party, denies that Tony Scalia is talking to the tea party members behind closed doors. Instead, she insists all of the House is invited. Meanwhile Chuckles Thomas continues to make news by neglecting to report his wife's income.
While our President will urge spending on modernizing our infrastructure, Mitch McConnell vows that Senate Republicans will block any further government spending. One of the great laughters in the last few days is that Ricky Cantor says he will compromise if President Obama wants Republican help in getting out of the mess. Notice the implication that the GOP never had anything to do with creating the mess.Rocky was gracious by acknowledging that the President really is a citizen of the United States --as opposed to Upper Volta.
After my post a couple of days ago about the reasons President Obama would win re-election in 2012, several mainstream journalists have also chimed in to reinforce that opinion. But a few warnings, we saw that people with negatives over 50% actually won in the 2010 elections. Yes, it's true that the GOP came to power in the House with only 22% of the vote, mostly white people over 55. But while redistricting will not seriously hamper Obama's re-election campaign, it should be noted that voter suppression efforts will be in high gear, especially against Hispanics, blacks, single women and students, key Obama constituencies. In the last election, Obama had a number of Democratic attorney-generals in the states who protected the vote. This time he does not.
So while President Obama is going to speak about various aspects of getting the economy going and making a transition for a prosperous future,what is the GOP policy for the same? No program. No problem. The House GOP just issued a press release claiming credit for all job creation since the 2010 mid-terms. They said, "we created jobs." How? Don't ask. It's stunning but not unexpected.
The next great legislative feat the House GOP plans is to repeal public campaign finance--that's the little box on your income tax form to check if you want a couple of bucks to go to political campaigns. And if you don't get where this is going, yesterday the Tea Party announced a nation-wide campaign against voter fraud. As I've written the Tea Party and the Wisconsin GOP teamed up for a voter suppression effort against students and minorities in the mid-terms and can claim the defeat of Russ Feingold.
Voters have been fast to register buyers' remorse. John Kasich, the new Governor of Ohio, has a whopping 30% approval rate, only couple of weeks into his term. Kasich used the Wayback machine to produce the first all-white cabinet in Ohio since the 1960s. He also won the hearts and minds of voters by refusing the federal funding for high speed rail ,which would have linked major cities in his state and been a major connection between the Northeast and the Illinois part of the new system. The same rapid downfall happened with New Jersey's Chris Chrissie, who dreams of the White House with his own approval rating in the dumpster.
In 1994, with the Gingrich Revolution, 37% of Americans believed the GOP would bring the right kind of change. Today, only 25% say the same for the Boehner Revolution, according to NBC polls. The GOP honeymoon seems about over--CBS reports that the GOP now has a 49% disapproval rating.
While taking credit for the economic recovery in the country, the new GOP House plans to pass a budget cut bill soon, which would call for a 15% reduction in all agencies dealing with domestic services. While businesses do this to maximize their profit margin, what happens to government? Do these 15% soon count as unemployed? Will they be considered lazy counch potatoes when the unemployment runs out?
One of their class act cuts will be to Head Start, throwing some 389,000 children out of the program.
You have to love Colin Powell, he still doesn't get how wacky the GOP has become. He said that cutting funding for PBS would not cut the deficit. Of course, not. You do that because they fired Juan Williams. It's about revenge not about the deficit. Poor Colin suggested cutting the military.
The NYTIMES/CBS poll shows that 55% of Americans want cuts to the military; 21% Medicare; and 13% to Social Security.
For some reason, the House GOP wants to cut 4,000 FBI agents. Probably because they are under the Department of Justice, which is run by Eric Holder. Sorry, it's as simple as that.
Peggy Noonan is on the sauce again. She seemed to have discovered Obama was an eloquent man during the Tucson speech but now moans why when the country is in crisis does it elect people like Jimm Carter or Barack Obama.
That poll I wanted about Palin versus Obama in Texas is in. Palin beats Obama by 46-45. He ties the Governor Rick Perry and is behind the other GOP contenders by about 5 points.
Ben Stein isn't impressed with the GOP field for 2012 and suggests that Barack Obama show run as a Republican. Maybe that's what's behind Rasmussen having Obama at 52% approval rating. It probably means it really is about 70% given Rasmussen's business links to Fox News.
Mitt Romney won the first official strawpoll in New Hampshire. But then again, the dirty secret is that Mitt's operatives are known to pay voters in straw polls. It's part of the strategy for maintaining a presence.
Will Mitt Romney being a Mormon hurt him now that America has been exposed to Glenn Beck? Before we only knew Mormons from Orrin Hatch and Brent Scowcroft. If they are as crazy as Beck, can you really trust them in power? Another question is whether Glenn and his wife wear the Mormon magic underwear when they have sex? Romney said he doesn't because they itch.
Michelle Bachmann, the Queen of the Tea Party, denies that Tony Scalia is talking to the tea party members behind closed doors. Instead, she insists all of the House is invited. Meanwhile Chuckles Thomas continues to make news by neglecting to report his wife's income.
While our President will urge spending on modernizing our infrastructure, Mitch McConnell vows that Senate Republicans will block any further government spending. One of the great laughters in the last few days is that Ricky Cantor says he will compromise if President Obama wants Republican help in getting out of the mess. Notice the implication that the GOP never had anything to do with creating the mess.Rocky was gracious by acknowledging that the President really is a citizen of the United States --as opposed to Upper Volta.
After my post a couple of days ago about the reasons President Obama would win re-election in 2012, several mainstream journalists have also chimed in to reinforce that opinion. But a few warnings, we saw that people with negatives over 50% actually won in the 2010 elections. Yes, it's true that the GOP came to power in the House with only 22% of the vote, mostly white people over 55. But while redistricting will not seriously hamper Obama's re-election campaign, it should be noted that voter suppression efforts will be in high gear, especially against Hispanics, blacks, single women and students, key Obama constituencies. In the last election, Obama had a number of Democratic attorney-generals in the states who protected the vote. This time he does not.
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