The post below was a celebration of IDS'15th anniversary and a thank you to all the human rights activists who have donated their time and ideas generously over the years. It also carried my thoughts on my 60th birthday. Since it was written on another computer, I guess it got scrambled by the National Security Agency. The long and short of it is that I now should be called by the Swahili honorific Mzee. So from now on , Mzee McColm if you please. No more Senor Bruce.
A follow-up note about Karl Rove's appearance at Oberlin. Rove has very strict clauses in his speaking contracts that any who might disrupt his speeches must be removed or he personally will leave and you have to pay. So one person sought to make a citizens' arrest and was himself arrested. Protestors were disrupted beforehand based not on the First Amendment but Karl's contract. He basically forces his host to break the law. Anyone remember what used to happen if someone in a George W. Bush audience asked him a hostile question, even politely. They were bodily removed and arrested. That's Karl's signature.
I was planning to attend the One Nation Rally at the Lincoln Memorial this Saturday at noon. But, should I? Glenn Beck has gone all chalkboard on this one showing that the organizers are all devotees of V.I. Lenin and want to takeover America for Marxism. Since Organizing for America is urging people to attend, Beck wants Obama to denounce socialism and Marxism once and for all. Apparently, Beck didn't hear President Obama in his Wisconsin speak address this criticism of his policies. I haven't been accused of being a Marxist or Socialist for decades so to bring things full circle I'm going and hope everyone who is able can.
But there is an alternative for this year's mid-terms. The nation has a chance to vote for a unique type of candidate this year--the thoroughly criminal. Forget that corporations are pouring anonymous millions into front organizations, forget that the Koch Brothers are trying to buy whole states, including California, forget that the GOP now has a 6-1 funding advantage in terms of advertising. This is your chance to vote for a criminal. And they are everywhere. The criminal profile allows a certain authenticity, a roughness that shows the person isn't a slick politician. With teabagger types, the public can sympathize with their financial difficulties because they are just like you and I, except we would be in jail. We have the run-of-the-mill grifter type like Christine O'Donnell and Joe Miller. We have the Northeast quasi-mobster like Carl Paladino and we have the amazing corporate criminal type like Florida's Rich Scott. The array this year is truly amazing.
Carl Paladino has made Youtube fame with his beef with New York Post veteran, Albany editor Fred Dicker, where he threatens to take Fred out. Fred may have been out of bounds because he went to interview Paladino's "love child", whom Paladino openly accepts and even campaigns with. Paladino has a superstar staff. One senior official is a woman who was forced to quick her government job because she was siphoning off public funds to private businesses. Another was Michael Boomberg's manager for a $1,000,000 GOTV effort the first election and just walked off and bought a house with the money. Another just got out of prison for a DUI accident. But Carl is going to "clean up Albany". Carl received notoriety with his racist e-mails photoshopping President Obama as a pimp and First Lady Michelle Obama as his prostitute. But his more egregious e-mails were discovered by reporters in Buffalo--hard core porn streams to business colleagues and political cronies.
Rick Scott in Florida is also one for the record books. When he beat Bill McCollum in the Republican primary, Bill would not endorse him, saying "I don't know why he isn't in jail." Scott, the CEO of a hospital chain, had to be removed--of course with about a $20 million golden parachute--after federal authorities caught his company in the largest Medicare fraud case in history. The company was forced to pay over $1.1 billion in fines for the crime. But, the kicker is that the criminal part of the case continued all the way until about one month before the elections. Scott in secret testimony is alleged to have invoked the 5th Amendment over 100 times. Then the man has the chutzpah to declare his candidacy for Governor a few weeks later.
Ron Johnson, who is against all government subsidies for business except for his own, testified in Wisconsin against a bipartisan child abuse bill, which would have extended the statute of limitations on pedophilia. He testified as a business man and community leader concerned that law suits would put constraints on many good organizations. Missing was that he was sitting on the Catholic Diocese Board, which was concerned with a rash of cases emerging against priests involved in child abuse. Apparently, this did not involve just one priest, who eventually went to jail, but a bunch through the Green Bay Diocese. He's running against Russ Feingold as the non-politician.
Joe Miller from Alaska first started his grifter act in Kansas where he received farm subsidies. Then he moved to Alaska and applied and received hunting and fishing licenses for the indigent. These are meant for people who must fish and hunt for their daily food and might be excluded because of the limited number of regular licenses. Joe at the time was a lawyer making $70,000 a year. Joe is mandated by law to file with the Federal Elections Commission a statement of his personal income or face upwards of $70,000 in fines. He was supposed to have done this last year but so far he hasn't. Joe also wants to eliminate Social Security. His father survives on Social Security. But you can say Joe knows how to game the system. I personally think he doesn't believe a word he says.
Christine O'Connell makes my own higher education look pretty bad. She's amazing--she has a master's from Princeton, went to Oxford and studied constitutional law at Claremont. And this was all before she even received her B.A. a few weeks ago. I wonder if she's for Sharia Law. Unfortunately, all said institutions issued strong denials of her educational prowess. Apparently she went to none of the above except Farleigh Dickinson. But this makes her more authentic--we all want such an education but we can't afford it. So just make it up. Apparently, she also made up a multi-year law suit on sex discrimination against a conservative organization. This eventually got John Fund to condemn her for lying to him. But John had no problem with her using campaign funds to pay her rent, her mother, her bowling games and her personal gas. "I have no problem with that," John said, invoking the new high standards of conservatives. Now, Christine's own pseudo-Christian non-profit is in jeipardy of losing its legal status because it failed to submit the usual legal papers to the state--and that's a very lax state. But remember Glenn Beck says Chris Coons, the Democrat, is a Marxist.
Meg Whitman has joined the criminal class--probably years before. At her losin debate effort against Jerry Brown, she opined that the law should crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants. The next morning her former housekeeper filed suit for damages saying that Queen Meg knew she was illegal for over nine years. Whitman fired her just before she announced she was running for Governor. This all has made the Whitman campaign go Glub,Glub, Glub.
Sharron Angle, who already has made record books for her John Birch views, wants to eliminate government healthcare programs. One slight problem, she is covered by her husband's healthcare plan he got as a government employee. In fact Sharron's main source of income is her husband's goverment pension. Also her father gets both Medicare and VA benefits.
Rand Paul with his bogus medical credentials had a little problem at Dairy Queen the other day. He was supposed to answer questions from local voters but was startled when he saw they were local union guys. He bolted to the car and refused to answer questions. What they wanted to know was how he could suggest a $2,000 deduction for Medicare, when everyone in that neck of the words depended on social security and Medicare.
The avoid questions m.o. makes sense. If you only have to report to the major corporations, why should you have to answer questions from a bunch of voters or , worse, journalists. This is the beauty of the Roberts Court decision on Citizens United. You don't have to disclose the source of your donations and you really don't have to campaign. Just buy alot of air time and make up all your credentials. Want to go to Oxford or Cambridge. Why not? The corporations don't really care what you say. There is a beauty to this.
David Plouffe was on NPR today explaining the real stakes in this election. He did a superb job. But I think the Obama people are making a mistake about Republicans wanting to turn back the clock to the last administration. They want to turn the clock back to the 1890s.
Read another analysis of the House races by a NYU poli sci professor who ran all his computer scenarios and came up with the Democrats keeping the House.
The polling data shows that all the races except in the headline contests in California are tightening up. That good news for Democrats in some places and bad news elsewhere. The Senate will be touch and go throughout the evening.
I am mortified that I got one question wrong on the Pew Survey on Religion. Top scorers were atheists, agnostics, Jews, Mormons, mainstream protestants, then the less knowledgeable evangelicals and Catholics. Catholics were the least savvy in terms of the quiz, even getting their own doctrines wrong. This survey drew all sorts of dismay from pundits. But as someone this morning wrote--the Surveys shows that Americans are more knowledgeable about religion than history or science. Scary.
My wife's note on my birthday card was that she was amazed that she has known me since the age of 21. I find it incredible also but then we are really people of Traditional Family Values instead of the phonies who don't know their own religion.
For the record, I may embrace my inner Teabagger and declare that I am Dr. R. Bruce McColm, expert in Neuroscience. I always liked neuroscience and believe it will yield amazing discoveries in the near future. So why not get ahead of the curve. If Glenn Beck can be a Doctor of Humanities and he lacks all semblence to the humane, why not.
Showing posts with label Meg Whitman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meg Whitman. Show all posts
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Pulpit Freedom Sunday
The Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian Right advocacy group, is sponsoringPulpit Freedom Sunday, where at least 100 evangelical pastors will defy the law and endorse candiates from their pulpits. In 1954, at the request of then Senator Lyndon Johnson, the IRS rules prohibits any speech from a church pulpit favoring or opposing a political candidate. Churches whose preachers do endorse a candidate risk losing their tax-exempt status. During the last presidential campaign, ministers supporting John McCain did the same thing but the only one government investigation was dropped. The ADF is trying to provoke a court case so they can overturn the rule saying that "The IRS should not be used as a political tool to advance the agenda of racial groups bent on silencing the voice of the church.." Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention opposes this whole stunt.
The latest Smithsonian magazine has an excellent article on the history of religious intolerance in America and how and why the Founding Fathers really did create a secular Republic, contrary to the opinions of Glenn Beck, Newt Gingrich and David Barton. The piece documents anti-Catholic and anti-Mormon riots in 19th century America. Interesting new fact was that one of the reasons Benedict Arnold became a turncoat was his disgust with America being backed by Catholic France.
CBN, the Christian Broadcasting Network, is whipped up about the plot by Muslims to introduce sharia law and destroy American civilization, whatever is left of it. What was a very fringe idea has now moved into the mainstream with New Gingrich and Frank Gaffney and Daniel Pipes flogging this goofy notion.
This week will be Bob Woodward week with his book on the Obama Administration's internal debates on Afghanistan. From the early excerpts, the reader must really ask serious questions about General Petraeus and his strange view that our children will be fighting in Afghanistan and that the war is not one that can be won but must be fought continually. This represents how far the notion of the Long War has permeated the defense establishment. In an age where a computer-virus is knocking out Iran's nuclear program, the United States with its COIN strategy is re-living our Vietnam counter-insurgency plan. The massive disconnect between our embrace of certain 21st century technology and strategies, which were based on military losses in Vietnam, Algeria, and Malaysia is a bit bizarre and disconcerting.
Read an early memo against the war in Iraq yesterday that quoted a Pentagon paper on establishing an American empire, a document purportedly written in 2001. I would love to know where that is and will be trying to locate it. Other recently-released dcuments released tis past week show that Dick Cheney requested a contingency plan for an invasion of Iraq on January 9,2001, right before George W took the oath of office, and that other documents showed internal arguments for the invasion during the first few months of the Administration. What remains a mystery is that we know Al Qaeda had nothing to do with Iraq, despite video footage of George W. actually arguing at length this was so, and we know, except some of the extreme right, that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction, so what was the invasion meant to do and what purpose was it to serve. Cheap psychologizing that son wanted to better Dad just doesn't fly.
Hopefully, some of the major participants after their self-defenses will reveal some of this in their memoirs. From Dick Cheney,we hope to hear his view of the energy empire, although I doubt whether this will be mentioned. Rather we will be treated to a sophisticated defense of rendition, torture and the wonders of defending America after 9/11 but not before. George W.'s memoirs due next month will probably drip some truths but inadvertantly. My money is on Donald Rumsfeld, whose memoir will be out next year. The reason I suggest this is that Douglas Feith's memoir was an honest attempt, in my opinion, to detail the origins of the war and the fights among the neo-cons. His boss is known to be much more blunt as we saw during the invasion. From the documents released this month, Rumsfeld argued that an invasion of Iraq would cement ties with Israel and strengthen America's position in the region as a whole. It's the last point I want to see elaborated on. Also, Rumsfeld was a major proponent of the 40-year war against Islamic fundamentalism, an idea whose time should never have come.
We will be dealing with the aftermath of this past Administration for decades. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration has been defending the worst national security laws and winning in our courts. There are areas of our civil liberties now, which appear to be gone for good. Paul Craig Roberts, a former assistant secretary of Treasury during President Reagan, just wrote a piece "It's Official--the United States is a Police State!". A conservative libertarian type of guy, this article is not an Obama-bashing piece but a critique of the continuation of the Bush suppression of civil liberties under this Administration. It's a good summary of the insanity of the Patriot Act and all the noxious laws that were generated from it. Only this week, the FBI raided war protestors homes and offices in Minneapolis and Chicago with the view of determining whether the groups gave "material assistance to terrorist groups." Apparently , the group was more focused on Colombia than Afghanistan. But Roberts shows that the all-expansive definitions of the anti-terrroism laws are a direct and present danger to dissent.
Meanwhile the mid-terms, Congressman DeFazio from Oregon did a great it--accompanied by video cameras he decided to find the group Concerned Taxpayers, who are running smear ads against him. He found a Washington townhouse with office equipment and only one person home--a person who identified himself as with the conservative Jamestown Foundation, which was first funded to assist Soviet defectors and later branched out into defense strategy policy. But DeFazio had the address right and the phone had a answering machine for Concerned Taxpayers. Why Defazio was p.o-ed was that the ads against him ties him to Nancy Pelosi, whom he is frequently on record as wanting to replace a Speaker of the House. He succeded in getting the group to pull their ads but still no one knows whose behind them.
Think Progress continues to detail the Koch-funded groups trying to engage in election fraud in Wisconsin. Maybe if enough of these incidents can be documented, advocacy groups might want to press for the RICO act being used against the Koch industries--seizing them on the suspicion of corruption. No shareholders would be hurt.
Will Mitt Romney be hurt if his dear friend from Bain, Queen Meg Whitman loses. Apparently, Whitman spokespeople are trying to get people to accept the Field Poll showing a tied race instead of the couple this week that shows Governor Brown with a five-six point lead. On the Senate side, a large majority of Californians want their Senator to support Obama agenda. Obama still rides high in California, which puts a damper on the Republican challenges.
Democrats are engaged in a two-prong strategy for mid-terms--one a national thrust of emphasizing the positive and the second one, a local strategy of hammering specific Republican candidates as unworthy of any elected office. Blue Dog Democrats got Nancy Pelosi's permission to distance themselves from her because their competition was composed on people fleeing bill collectors, tax evaders, a couple who are under investigation for business fraud. The issue in these races is to create the big Ick factor--"this guy is too sleazy to represent you." Given the roster of Republican candidates, who can blame them. If you are Nita Lowey running in Westchester, New York, even though you are liberal, don't you think you should hammer on the fact that the Republican in suburban New York is an anti-semite, a white separatist and writes positively about eugenics? Forget Obamacare and the Pledge, it's obvious your opponent shouldn't be allowed near any public office.
Dana Milbank got in a good line against Tom Kaine. Tom Kaine appeared on CNN and said that the Republicans merging with the Tea Party had become the Danner Party." Milbank said this remark insulted cannibals everywhere.
In Kentucky, recent polls have Jack Conway with the momentum against Rand Paul. Conway has pulled within 3 points. The last Senate race here proved to be a cliff-hanger, only decided in the early morning. Mike Huckabee is in Kentucky campaigning for Paul today. But Paul shot himself in the foot again by saving that seniors should pay more for Medicare. And his Hitler remark this past week may signal to voters "Not Ready for Prime Time."
Florida papers, after several investigative reports into Marco Rubio's AMEX use and his role in various boondoogle projects, are demanding he come clean on his financial dealings. This may have come too late as Rubio seems to have a commanding lead against Crist and Meeks.
The New York Times covers Karl Rove's parallel secret GOP. Democrats go nuts every time Rove's name is mentioned because of his swiftboating techniques and other dirty tricks over the years. But remember he lost the 2000 election, barely won in 2004 because of voter suppression efforts in Ohio and lost massively in 2006. This is not a great mastermind. I just wonder whether his billionaire's Club provides for him to return the money if he fails.
Believe it or not a Fox News contributor has written a piece in the Daily Beast, which documents why this year is not 1994. She says that last time Clinton and Tom Foley, the speaker of the House, did not see the Republican wave coming and that Republicans had not been in charge of the House in 40 years so Americans did not know what to expect. She also said that all the seats lost by Democrats existed in districts won by the Republican presidential candidate. This year only half the seats projected for a Democratic lose are in districts won by McCain.
Remember the first teabagger fight in NY-25, the huge congressional district that stretches across the state? Well, teabagger millionaire Hoffman has lost the Republican line this year and will be running as a Conservative. This was the seat the Republicans have held since the Civil War and lost last year. Well, it looks like they will lose it again. It's seats like these where Republicans need to pick up steam to take over the House.
I thought about Nate Silver's projection that Republicans would win with a 12-seat majority. From just the rumor mill, there are at least 12 Republicans with serious ethics issues. Before they even get to conduct all their investigations, first we will have a foodfight over leadership and then you could have the revelations about these cases. Any resignations or timely retirements would then throw the House open again.
The latest Smithsonian magazine has an excellent article on the history of religious intolerance in America and how and why the Founding Fathers really did create a secular Republic, contrary to the opinions of Glenn Beck, Newt Gingrich and David Barton. The piece documents anti-Catholic and anti-Mormon riots in 19th century America. Interesting new fact was that one of the reasons Benedict Arnold became a turncoat was his disgust with America being backed by Catholic France.
CBN, the Christian Broadcasting Network, is whipped up about the plot by Muslims to introduce sharia law and destroy American civilization, whatever is left of it. What was a very fringe idea has now moved into the mainstream with New Gingrich and Frank Gaffney and Daniel Pipes flogging this goofy notion.
This week will be Bob Woodward week with his book on the Obama Administration's internal debates on Afghanistan. From the early excerpts, the reader must really ask serious questions about General Petraeus and his strange view that our children will be fighting in Afghanistan and that the war is not one that can be won but must be fought continually. This represents how far the notion of the Long War has permeated the defense establishment. In an age where a computer-virus is knocking out Iran's nuclear program, the United States with its COIN strategy is re-living our Vietnam counter-insurgency plan. The massive disconnect between our embrace of certain 21st century technology and strategies, which were based on military losses in Vietnam, Algeria, and Malaysia is a bit bizarre and disconcerting.
Read an early memo against the war in Iraq yesterday that quoted a Pentagon paper on establishing an American empire, a document purportedly written in 2001. I would love to know where that is and will be trying to locate it. Other recently-released dcuments released tis past week show that Dick Cheney requested a contingency plan for an invasion of Iraq on January 9,2001, right before George W took the oath of office, and that other documents showed internal arguments for the invasion during the first few months of the Administration. What remains a mystery is that we know Al Qaeda had nothing to do with Iraq, despite video footage of George W. actually arguing at length this was so, and we know, except some of the extreme right, that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction, so what was the invasion meant to do and what purpose was it to serve. Cheap psychologizing that son wanted to better Dad just doesn't fly.
Hopefully, some of the major participants after their self-defenses will reveal some of this in their memoirs. From Dick Cheney,we hope to hear his view of the energy empire, although I doubt whether this will be mentioned. Rather we will be treated to a sophisticated defense of rendition, torture and the wonders of defending America after 9/11 but not before. George W.'s memoirs due next month will probably drip some truths but inadvertantly. My money is on Donald Rumsfeld, whose memoir will be out next year. The reason I suggest this is that Douglas Feith's memoir was an honest attempt, in my opinion, to detail the origins of the war and the fights among the neo-cons. His boss is known to be much more blunt as we saw during the invasion. From the documents released this month, Rumsfeld argued that an invasion of Iraq would cement ties with Israel and strengthen America's position in the region as a whole. It's the last point I want to see elaborated on. Also, Rumsfeld was a major proponent of the 40-year war against Islamic fundamentalism, an idea whose time should never have come.
We will be dealing with the aftermath of this past Administration for decades. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration has been defending the worst national security laws and winning in our courts. There are areas of our civil liberties now, which appear to be gone for good. Paul Craig Roberts, a former assistant secretary of Treasury during President Reagan, just wrote a piece "It's Official--the United States is a Police State!". A conservative libertarian type of guy, this article is not an Obama-bashing piece but a critique of the continuation of the Bush suppression of civil liberties under this Administration. It's a good summary of the insanity of the Patriot Act and all the noxious laws that were generated from it. Only this week, the FBI raided war protestors homes and offices in Minneapolis and Chicago with the view of determining whether the groups gave "material assistance to terrorist groups." Apparently , the group was more focused on Colombia than Afghanistan. But Roberts shows that the all-expansive definitions of the anti-terrroism laws are a direct and present danger to dissent.
Meanwhile the mid-terms, Congressman DeFazio from Oregon did a great it--accompanied by video cameras he decided to find the group Concerned Taxpayers, who are running smear ads against him. He found a Washington townhouse with office equipment and only one person home--a person who identified himself as with the conservative Jamestown Foundation, which was first funded to assist Soviet defectors and later branched out into defense strategy policy. But DeFazio had the address right and the phone had a answering machine for Concerned Taxpayers. Why Defazio was p.o-ed was that the ads against him ties him to Nancy Pelosi, whom he is frequently on record as wanting to replace a Speaker of the House. He succeded in getting the group to pull their ads but still no one knows whose behind them.
Think Progress continues to detail the Koch-funded groups trying to engage in election fraud in Wisconsin. Maybe if enough of these incidents can be documented, advocacy groups might want to press for the RICO act being used against the Koch industries--seizing them on the suspicion of corruption. No shareholders would be hurt.
Will Mitt Romney be hurt if his dear friend from Bain, Queen Meg Whitman loses. Apparently, Whitman spokespeople are trying to get people to accept the Field Poll showing a tied race instead of the couple this week that shows Governor Brown with a five-six point lead. On the Senate side, a large majority of Californians want their Senator to support Obama agenda. Obama still rides high in California, which puts a damper on the Republican challenges.
Democrats are engaged in a two-prong strategy for mid-terms--one a national thrust of emphasizing the positive and the second one, a local strategy of hammering specific Republican candidates as unworthy of any elected office. Blue Dog Democrats got Nancy Pelosi's permission to distance themselves from her because their competition was composed on people fleeing bill collectors, tax evaders, a couple who are under investigation for business fraud. The issue in these races is to create the big Ick factor--"this guy is too sleazy to represent you." Given the roster of Republican candidates, who can blame them. If you are Nita Lowey running in Westchester, New York, even though you are liberal, don't you think you should hammer on the fact that the Republican in suburban New York is an anti-semite, a white separatist and writes positively about eugenics? Forget Obamacare and the Pledge, it's obvious your opponent shouldn't be allowed near any public office.
Dana Milbank got in a good line against Tom Kaine. Tom Kaine appeared on CNN and said that the Republicans merging with the Tea Party had become the Danner Party." Milbank said this remark insulted cannibals everywhere.
In Kentucky, recent polls have Jack Conway with the momentum against Rand Paul. Conway has pulled within 3 points. The last Senate race here proved to be a cliff-hanger, only decided in the early morning. Mike Huckabee is in Kentucky campaigning for Paul today. But Paul shot himself in the foot again by saving that seniors should pay more for Medicare. And his Hitler remark this past week may signal to voters "Not Ready for Prime Time."
Florida papers, after several investigative reports into Marco Rubio's AMEX use and his role in various boondoogle projects, are demanding he come clean on his financial dealings. This may have come too late as Rubio seems to have a commanding lead against Crist and Meeks.
The New York Times covers Karl Rove's parallel secret GOP. Democrats go nuts every time Rove's name is mentioned because of his swiftboating techniques and other dirty tricks over the years. But remember he lost the 2000 election, barely won in 2004 because of voter suppression efforts in Ohio and lost massively in 2006. This is not a great mastermind. I just wonder whether his billionaire's Club provides for him to return the money if he fails.
Believe it or not a Fox News contributor has written a piece in the Daily Beast, which documents why this year is not 1994. She says that last time Clinton and Tom Foley, the speaker of the House, did not see the Republican wave coming and that Republicans had not been in charge of the House in 40 years so Americans did not know what to expect. She also said that all the seats lost by Democrats existed in districts won by the Republican presidential candidate. This year only half the seats projected for a Democratic lose are in districts won by McCain.
Remember the first teabagger fight in NY-25, the huge congressional district that stretches across the state? Well, teabagger millionaire Hoffman has lost the Republican line this year and will be running as a Conservative. This was the seat the Republicans have held since the Civil War and lost last year. Well, it looks like they will lose it again. It's seats like these where Republicans need to pick up steam to take over the House.
I thought about Nate Silver's projection that Republicans would win with a 12-seat majority. From just the rumor mill, there are at least 12 Republicans with serious ethics issues. Before they even get to conduct all their investigations, first we will have a foodfight over leadership and then you could have the revelations about these cases. Any resignations or timely retirements would then throw the House open again.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Pledge--a Big Flop
It didn't take long for all opinion magazines and bloggers on both the right and left to laugh off the Pledge to America. Having read over two dozen comments, the comments range from pablum and worn-out ideas to "the worst thing to come out of Washington since General McClellan"--that's from a conservative. Conservatives claim that Republicans made no specific recommendations or ways to cut the deficit and do not believe Republicans have the discipline to enact their own program. Democrats rightfully claim this is a full-blown return to the George W. Bush policies and will only vastly increase the deficit. AP and other wires claim there are no new ideas and no specifics but rather it was aimed to make the base feel good. The Religious Right condemned it because being anti-abortion doesn't go far enough anymore with them. Foreign policy mavens note that both Iraq and Afghanistan are barely mentioned and that the only foreign policy issue is tightening sanctions against Iran, which one conservative dismisses as inadequate to the threat. He was hoping for a more hawkish invade Iran.But one person noted with relief that Republicans were not advocating going back to "enhanced interrogation" of everyone suspected of being a terrorist. So this was counted as progress. China, Pakistan, Europe, Africa and everyplace on planet Earth was neglected, despite the Pledge mentioning that the USA was the hope of all mankind.
Marc Ambinder lamented the fact the Republicans didn't write it so the Democrats couldn't demagogue it. Sorry Marc. Then one post on Dailykos actually went through all the photographs in the release and noted that every photo showed white people with the possible exception of a black person in the back of a restaurant shot. And even that was in doubt. After all, the Republican base is all white now. I'm surprised they didn't just limit the photographs to white men over 55.
The Tan Man did say today that he has never been in a tanning salon. Maybe he should get the tax on tanning beds repealed.
One error from yesterday, I miswrote that it it was Queen Meg Whitman , who was going to be feted by the Koch Brothers, but it is Carly Fiorina. I guess Carly really does need more money for her campaign, while Queen Meg has enough of her own. Speaking of the Koch Brothers, the Manhattan based one now has surpassed Michael Bloomberg as the richest person in New York City.
The Senate missed by one vote today to hold a vote on the Disclose Act, which would require companies to openly identify with political ads. The bill passed the House with only 1 Republican vote. I guess the one who isn't getting corporate funding. Rumors suggested Senator Durbin was to put forward the Dream Act today.
If anyone can tell me what the Democrats' strategy on tax cuts is, I'd appreciate it. Earlier in the day the House reported that there would be no vote before the election since they were waiting on the Senate and believed it would be filibustered. At that time, Democrats argued that they had already made a strong case against the Republicans. My problem with this is that most people actually believe Obama raised their taxes, even though they received a tax cut through the stimulus package. Politically, I think it's important to box the Republicans in on this to establish the high ground for the election. By late afternoon, David Axelrod said that they wanted a vote even if it failed for just that reason. Obama took the tax issue away from the Republicans in 2008 and until now has kept it for himself. But letting the Republicans out of the box now would diffuse the strength of the Democrats' position. Keep tuning in.
But as I said, if you let all tax cuts expire, you have a balanced budget. Besides read today a long article that showed that the tax cuts for any bracket did absolutely zero for the economy and of course did not raise revenues for the Government as promised by the Republicans.
The GOP is trying to push aside our anti-semite candidate I mentioned yesterday. They are also annoyed that Mike Castle is threatening to have a write in campaign for Senator in Delaware. he has the easier issue that everyone can spell his name because it's the name of a County in the state, while the name Murkowski just confuses people in Alaska.
Polls suggest that Hapless Harry Reid still has an upward battle in Nevada against John Bircher Sharron Angle. But he could be saved because there is also a spot for "None of the Above", whch actually won one recent race in Nevada.
I still Russ Feingold is toast and not from the polling data. There is a serious effort to cage votes in all the student areas of Wisconsin, where he would draw considerable support. This effort is being led by the Tea Party and Americans for Prosperity.
Rahm Emmanuel looks like he will be leaving the White House in October to run for Mayor of Chicago. David Axelrod is leaving in 2011 to begin the organization for Obama's re-election run.
Finally, a poll was released yesterday that pissed-off Democrats are more likely to vote and not those satisfied with the way things are.
Marc Ambinder lamented the fact the Republicans didn't write it so the Democrats couldn't demagogue it. Sorry Marc. Then one post on Dailykos actually went through all the photographs in the release and noted that every photo showed white people with the possible exception of a black person in the back of a restaurant shot. And even that was in doubt. After all, the Republican base is all white now. I'm surprised they didn't just limit the photographs to white men over 55.
The Tan Man did say today that he has never been in a tanning salon. Maybe he should get the tax on tanning beds repealed.
One error from yesterday, I miswrote that it it was Queen Meg Whitman , who was going to be feted by the Koch Brothers, but it is Carly Fiorina. I guess Carly really does need more money for her campaign, while Queen Meg has enough of her own. Speaking of the Koch Brothers, the Manhattan based one now has surpassed Michael Bloomberg as the richest person in New York City.
The Senate missed by one vote today to hold a vote on the Disclose Act, which would require companies to openly identify with political ads. The bill passed the House with only 1 Republican vote. I guess the one who isn't getting corporate funding. Rumors suggested Senator Durbin was to put forward the Dream Act today.
If anyone can tell me what the Democrats' strategy on tax cuts is, I'd appreciate it. Earlier in the day the House reported that there would be no vote before the election since they were waiting on the Senate and believed it would be filibustered. At that time, Democrats argued that they had already made a strong case against the Republicans. My problem with this is that most people actually believe Obama raised their taxes, even though they received a tax cut through the stimulus package. Politically, I think it's important to box the Republicans in on this to establish the high ground for the election. By late afternoon, David Axelrod said that they wanted a vote even if it failed for just that reason. Obama took the tax issue away from the Republicans in 2008 and until now has kept it for himself. But letting the Republicans out of the box now would diffuse the strength of the Democrats' position. Keep tuning in.
But as I said, if you let all tax cuts expire, you have a balanced budget. Besides read today a long article that showed that the tax cuts for any bracket did absolutely zero for the economy and of course did not raise revenues for the Government as promised by the Republicans.
The GOP is trying to push aside our anti-semite candidate I mentioned yesterday. They are also annoyed that Mike Castle is threatening to have a write in campaign for Senator in Delaware. he has the easier issue that everyone can spell his name because it's the name of a County in the state, while the name Murkowski just confuses people in Alaska.
Polls suggest that Hapless Harry Reid still has an upward battle in Nevada against John Bircher Sharron Angle. But he could be saved because there is also a spot for "None of the Above", whch actually won one recent race in Nevada.
I still Russ Feingold is toast and not from the polling data. There is a serious effort to cage votes in all the student areas of Wisconsin, where he would draw considerable support. This effort is being led by the Tea Party and Americans for Prosperity.
Rahm Emmanuel looks like he will be leaving the White House in October to run for Mayor of Chicago. David Axelrod is leaving in 2011 to begin the organization for Obama's re-election run.
Finally, a poll was released yesterday that pissed-off Democrats are more likely to vote and not those satisfied with the way things are.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Coffee at the Pink Flamingo
I forgot and you probably did too. The Iraq war is over for us this month. How did the WMDs work out for you? It's MISSION ACCOMPLISHED--sort of.
Well, it didn't take long for the Republicans to adopt my strategy on the tax cuts for the rich. They finally admitted it would deepen the deficit but tax cuts for the rich are really for job creation. Fox News was helpful in pointing out that the elimination of these tax cuts would be Obama declaring class war in the United States and threatening what made America great--the rich? Karl Rove has pivoted and says that the tax cuts for the rich are really aimed at small businesses. Ironic in that the Republicans have fought against every tax break for small businesses since Obama took office. But also, it doesn't really apply because only about 1% of small businesses make a profit of $250,000 a year. The Tax is not on gross receipts. As for the stimulus effect of these tax cuts, the bad news is that reputable think tanks like the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute have shown that job creation after the Bush tax cuts was weaker than any other recovery in our history. But why fool around with facts?
Still bitter after all these years, Senator John McCain and his new sidekick Senator Coburn issued a report that found problems with 100 stimulus projects of the thousands. What's worse for McCain is the new Pew Poll that shows that a vast majority of every party prefers their representative to bring government projects to their home district. McCain hasn't brought any and has campaigned against pork barrel spending his whole life. It seems Americans respectfully disagree.
Someone at the Dailykos decided to post the horoscopes of the Republican and Democratic leaders as well as the heads of the congressional campaign committees to ascertain the results of the November elections. Great idea and fun. The Republicans all come out as frustrated, while House Democrats go through tough times but emerge more powerful. Hmmm.
The horoscope may be the best answer yet. Yesterday's Gallup poll had Republicans regaining the generic poll by five--which is a direct reversal of the previous two weeks.
Republican staffers have been informed not to give out their bosses' home district schedules for the recess. Rumor has it that they fear 99ers showing up at townhall meetings. I would love to see a reverse Tea Party on the Republicans.
Richard Trumpka of the AFL-CIO has committed $53 million to the mid-terms to create a firewall against Republican in-roads. He called this year's choice "the cleaning crew versus the wrecking crew".
No one has mentioned this but while Republicans will pick up a number of state houses this fall, Obama may come out the biggest winner. If Democrats (and they have a real shot) win California, New York (done deal), Florida, Ohio and Texas (which I believe), that's 167 electoral votes and Obama is 103 away from re-election.
Meg Whitman officially has spent $99 million so far to buy the state of California. Governor Moonbeam has spent $450,000.
Let's play Senate elections for our summer amusement. Nate Silver has automatic Republican pick-ups in North Dakota, Arkansas, Delaware, and Indiana. Observers point to tight races in Wisconsin with Russ Feingold up for re-election and Washington State with Patty Murray. I think both incumbents will be OK. I think Patty Murray will beat Dino Rossi convincingly. I'm willing to call Florida now for Charlie Crist over Marco Rubio. I also believe that the Democratic nominee in Colorado will inch past the Republican,who will be crazy no matter who wins the nod. While I like Rodney Glassman in Arizona as a candidate--someone to watch, McCain will win again.
So the Democrats are minus 3 at this stage. I believe Democrats can pick up Ohio with Lee Fisher over John Kasich, North Carolina with Elaine Marshall over Burr, Kentucky with Conway over Rand Paul, Louisiana with Charlie Melancon over Diaper Dave Vitter and New Hampshire with David Hodes over one of the teabaggers. That would put Democrats up 2.
Right now Missouri, Pennsylvania and Illinois are too close to call. I can't see Mark Kirk regaining momentum in Illinois with his serial fabrication. In Pennsylvania, the Republicans look certain to take the state house but Pat Toomey seems too extreme for a state that has benefited enormously from the stimlus projects. And Missouri has evolved into one of the craziest political states in recent years that it's anyone's guess. Let's just say out of the three, Democrats lose 1.
Democrats have a lock on West Virginia with Gov Manchin. I like Roxanne Conlin as the Democratic candidate in Iowa. Iowa will elect former Governor Bradstad to the state house. Will this be enough to bring Grassley over the line? His approval rating has slipped to below 50% for the first time in his career.
Right now, Democrats could gain 1 in the Senate. CW would put loses at 4.
The question that hasn't been asked is whether Republicans will change their leadership in both chambers of Congress if they fail to win the majority. Do you want to stick with the policy of "No" through the presidential elections in 2012?
My rule of thumb at this stage of the elections is that Republicans must be polling at least 10 pts ahead to conclude they will win. It's like a reverse generic ballot, where Democrats polling 5 pt leads are actually tied.
Gallup released yesterday a 50 state poll ranking states as political conservative, moderate or liberal. This type of poll has always been circulated by right-wing friends of my as indicating that the country is conservative. But as we saw with David Stockman's blast at Republican eceonomics in the New York Times that traditional "Republican" values, those we associate with "conservative", are not radical and the hard right of today's party. That's why on the other end of the spectrum The Young Turks can claim most Americans are progressive, according to issues. in the future, Gallup should actually dig deeper to establish what values lie beneath "conservative" and "liberal". It would also be interesting to see how "libertarian" turns out.
The most conservative states are Wyoming, Mississippi, Utah, South Dakota, Alabama, North Dakota, Idaho, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Louisiana. So it breaks down to Western libertarianism, Mormonism, southern neo-confederate, Christian wingnuttery, and actually three normal conservative states Nebraska, and the Dakotas.
The top liberal states are D.C.,Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts, Colorado,New York, Oregon, Washington, and New Jersey. So that's African-American, the Yankees, Pacific Northwest, and the cosmopolitan mid-Atlantic states.
Well, how are our family value states doing? Law professors Naomi Cahn and June Carbone have published a new book "Red Families v. Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture", which examines the family patterns of socially conservative, "pro-family" people and their blue family counterparts. What I found interesting is that their findings mirror what evangelical sociologists have found about their flock. Red states have higher divorce rates and higher teen birth rates,slightly lower abortion rates, and higher out of wedlock births. One interesting fact is that 90% of women in all states use contraception. In fact, about 46% of women who procured abortions hasd not used some form of contraception the previous month so that the authors believe you could half this number with better education and the availability of contraception. Alot of their findings reflect not only differences in attitudes toward families but also a direct relationship to economic well-being and education. Ironically, those who live a more traditional family lifestyle are in blue states and the states with the lowest divorce rates are those ,which allow gay marriage. The evangelical studies go farther into meth addiction, porn use and domestic abuse, which show evangelicals are more dysfunctional than other sectors of society.
Well, it didn't take long for the Republicans to adopt my strategy on the tax cuts for the rich. They finally admitted it would deepen the deficit but tax cuts for the rich are really for job creation. Fox News was helpful in pointing out that the elimination of these tax cuts would be Obama declaring class war in the United States and threatening what made America great--the rich? Karl Rove has pivoted and says that the tax cuts for the rich are really aimed at small businesses. Ironic in that the Republicans have fought against every tax break for small businesses since Obama took office. But also, it doesn't really apply because only about 1% of small businesses make a profit of $250,000 a year. The Tax is not on gross receipts. As for the stimulus effect of these tax cuts, the bad news is that reputable think tanks like the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute have shown that job creation after the Bush tax cuts was weaker than any other recovery in our history. But why fool around with facts?
Still bitter after all these years, Senator John McCain and his new sidekick Senator Coburn issued a report that found problems with 100 stimulus projects of the thousands. What's worse for McCain is the new Pew Poll that shows that a vast majority of every party prefers their representative to bring government projects to their home district. McCain hasn't brought any and has campaigned against pork barrel spending his whole life. It seems Americans respectfully disagree.
Someone at the Dailykos decided to post the horoscopes of the Republican and Democratic leaders as well as the heads of the congressional campaign committees to ascertain the results of the November elections. Great idea and fun. The Republicans all come out as frustrated, while House Democrats go through tough times but emerge more powerful. Hmmm.
The horoscope may be the best answer yet. Yesterday's Gallup poll had Republicans regaining the generic poll by five--which is a direct reversal of the previous two weeks.
Republican staffers have been informed not to give out their bosses' home district schedules for the recess. Rumor has it that they fear 99ers showing up at townhall meetings. I would love to see a reverse Tea Party on the Republicans.
Richard Trumpka of the AFL-CIO has committed $53 million to the mid-terms to create a firewall against Republican in-roads. He called this year's choice "the cleaning crew versus the wrecking crew".
No one has mentioned this but while Republicans will pick up a number of state houses this fall, Obama may come out the biggest winner. If Democrats (and they have a real shot) win California, New York (done deal), Florida, Ohio and Texas (which I believe), that's 167 electoral votes and Obama is 103 away from re-election.
Meg Whitman officially has spent $99 million so far to buy the state of California. Governor Moonbeam has spent $450,000.
Let's play Senate elections for our summer amusement. Nate Silver has automatic Republican pick-ups in North Dakota, Arkansas, Delaware, and Indiana. Observers point to tight races in Wisconsin with Russ Feingold up for re-election and Washington State with Patty Murray. I think both incumbents will be OK. I think Patty Murray will beat Dino Rossi convincingly. I'm willing to call Florida now for Charlie Crist over Marco Rubio. I also believe that the Democratic nominee in Colorado will inch past the Republican,who will be crazy no matter who wins the nod. While I like Rodney Glassman in Arizona as a candidate--someone to watch, McCain will win again.
So the Democrats are minus 3 at this stage. I believe Democrats can pick up Ohio with Lee Fisher over John Kasich, North Carolina with Elaine Marshall over Burr, Kentucky with Conway over Rand Paul, Louisiana with Charlie Melancon over Diaper Dave Vitter and New Hampshire with David Hodes over one of the teabaggers. That would put Democrats up 2.
Right now Missouri, Pennsylvania and Illinois are too close to call. I can't see Mark Kirk regaining momentum in Illinois with his serial fabrication. In Pennsylvania, the Republicans look certain to take the state house but Pat Toomey seems too extreme for a state that has benefited enormously from the stimlus projects. And Missouri has evolved into one of the craziest political states in recent years that it's anyone's guess. Let's just say out of the three, Democrats lose 1.
Democrats have a lock on West Virginia with Gov Manchin. I like Roxanne Conlin as the Democratic candidate in Iowa. Iowa will elect former Governor Bradstad to the state house. Will this be enough to bring Grassley over the line? His approval rating has slipped to below 50% for the first time in his career.
Right now, Democrats could gain 1 in the Senate. CW would put loses at 4.
The question that hasn't been asked is whether Republicans will change their leadership in both chambers of Congress if they fail to win the majority. Do you want to stick with the policy of "No" through the presidential elections in 2012?
My rule of thumb at this stage of the elections is that Republicans must be polling at least 10 pts ahead to conclude they will win. It's like a reverse generic ballot, where Democrats polling 5 pt leads are actually tied.
Gallup released yesterday a 50 state poll ranking states as political conservative, moderate or liberal. This type of poll has always been circulated by right-wing friends of my as indicating that the country is conservative. But as we saw with David Stockman's blast at Republican eceonomics in the New York Times that traditional "Republican" values, those we associate with "conservative", are not radical and the hard right of today's party. That's why on the other end of the spectrum The Young Turks can claim most Americans are progressive, according to issues. in the future, Gallup should actually dig deeper to establish what values lie beneath "conservative" and "liberal". It would also be interesting to see how "libertarian" turns out.
The most conservative states are Wyoming, Mississippi, Utah, South Dakota, Alabama, North Dakota, Idaho, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Louisiana. So it breaks down to Western libertarianism, Mormonism, southern neo-confederate, Christian wingnuttery, and actually three normal conservative states Nebraska, and the Dakotas.
The top liberal states are D.C.,Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts, Colorado,New York, Oregon, Washington, and New Jersey. So that's African-American, the Yankees, Pacific Northwest, and the cosmopolitan mid-Atlantic states.
Well, how are our family value states doing? Law professors Naomi Cahn and June Carbone have published a new book "Red Families v. Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture", which examines the family patterns of socially conservative, "pro-family" people and their blue family counterparts. What I found interesting is that their findings mirror what evangelical sociologists have found about their flock. Red states have higher divorce rates and higher teen birth rates,slightly lower abortion rates, and higher out of wedlock births. One interesting fact is that 90% of women in all states use contraception. In fact, about 46% of women who procured abortions hasd not used some form of contraception the previous month so that the authors believe you could half this number with better education and the availability of contraception. Alot of their findings reflect not only differences in attitudes toward families but also a direct relationship to economic well-being and education. Ironically, those who live a more traditional family lifestyle are in blue states and the states with the lowest divorce rates are those ,which allow gay marriage. The evangelical studies go farther into meth addiction, porn use and domestic abuse, which show evangelicals are more dysfunctional than other sectors of society.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Afternoon Coffee at the Last Manatee
Drudge reports that Obama only met with BP executives for 20 minutes today. Pretty productive meeting since he got them to fork over $20 billion for an escrow fund for the region's victims. With additonal fines of $4,300 per barrel, this is looking better than the original Louisiana Purchase.
Newt told his Fox audience that in this case it was alright for Obama to use religious language during his address to the nation.
Haley Barbour, Governor of Mississippi, one of the states affected by the spill worried that the escrow account would affect BP's profits.
Sarah Palin said the Dutch could clean up the spill. She was referring to their skimmer technology. A little late in the day, Dutch's skimmer machines have been in the Gulf for the last few days.
The House Republicans entered an amendment yesterday to strip the health reform bill of the individuals mandates. It was defeated. Look for this throughout the next few years.
The Senate Republicans managed to block the extension of unemployment and Cobra as well as the emergency $50 billion funds for the bailout of states.
Meg Whitman put another $20 million of her personal wealth into her campaign coffers. This means she has put in $90 million of her own dough. Apparently, Meg also has anger issues, having fought an employee in 2007. The poor woman was trying to prepare her for an interview. Should be interesting if she wins the California state house.
The Christian Right is back in all its lunacy, saying that the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell would mean that God would make us lose wars. In case anyone has been watching, the United States hasn't won a clearcut battlefield victory in a long time. There has been so many statements and pronouncements by the Christian Right, you're better off checking www.rightwingwatch.com on a daily basis.
I think I've finally figured out this fascination of the Hard Right for the American revolution. It's the last "good war" in their minds that America fought. You can't embrace Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War because he was for big government, the wrong side won and the slaves were freed. You can't embrace WWII because FDR was the President and, in some minds on the right, the wrong side won again. And Vietnam doesn't do it because we lost and that was the period of the civil rights movement. And we know George W and Dick Cheney have been airbrushed out of the small government conservatives' history. The Spanish-American war is a no-no because it involves Hispanics and we want them deported.
Bill McCollum, who is running for the Republican nomination in Florida, is being successfully challenged by a hospital mongol, who has been convicted of felonies and forced to pay millions of dollars in fines. I guess the appeal is that this person was a CEO.
The final arguments for the Prop 8 trial are wrapping up today. The anti-gay lawyers are moving on another front to get the 18,000 legal gay marriages reversed. In my mind, the legal arguments have been all on the pro-gay side with the anti-gays having to invoke sociological studies done in the 1950s. But I am skeptical that the final arguments can move the current Supreme Court. Conservative lawyer Ted Olson disagrees but I believe he's naive about where the current court stands.
Jim Inhofe is doubling down on his anti-DADT repeal position. He went on the floor of the Senate yesterday saying that our armed forces simply won't fight with open gays in the military. Sort of like how it happened in Sparta and Rome.
All the polls this week except the AP poll show Republicans set to make big gains in the Congressional races. The volatility of these polls showing rapid changes in the generic congressional races and the vast ups and downs of Democrartic enthusiasm make me highly skeptical that we know anything about the state of the electorate. With jobs, the deficit and terrorism ranking as the top issues. I personally can't see how Republicans can capitalize on the jobs and deficit issue, although they talk a good game on terrorism.
Republicans have not created a job since 1990 and they have never acted as deficit hawks since Eisenhower. I can't see where they gain any credibility here, especially among independents. Unless something dramatic happens, terrorism doesn't trump the economy. As we've seen, Republicans are now embracing CEOs as their star candidates. But look at Whitman and Fiorina in California. Both of them gained their reputation by either outsourcing jobs or eliminating massive numbers of jobs nationwide but also in the very state they seek to represent.
On Taxes, Republicans claim they own the franchise in tax reduction but they opposed during the stimulus debate the largest tax cut for the middle class in history. Now they are framing the tax debate as if the financial concerns of the very wealthy are those of the rest of us. They may well pull that off with their spin machine. Most Americans don't believe Obama cut their taxes.
The fate of the free world hinges on Jack Nicholson just as it did in Mars Attacks. If Jack cheers on the Lakers well in Game 7, we will be saved. While not my favorite Laker team--Kareem and Magic--the Lakers must crush the Celtics if there is any justice in the world. As President Obama said, "the arc of history bends toward justice."
We salute Ken Griffey, who retired this past month. Finishing his career with 630 hrs, Griffey could have surpassed all homer records--natural or steroid infuenced--if his career in Cincinnati hadn't been plagued with injuries.
Yankee statisticians claim that Derek Jeter surpassed the 3,000 hit mark this week--if you include his playoff and world series hits. Hey, that's cheating. Let him do it straight. It should take two more months.
Meanwhile Nick Johnson made it another year in which he made the Disabled List. That makes every year that I have been following his career.
Shame on Brazil for only beating North Korea 2-1 in the World Cup. The North Korean team was made up of all males in the country who are given daily meals. Double shame on Spain for losing to Switzerland.
Washington is abuzz with the Rookie pitcher Stephen Strassburg, who struck out 14 in his first start and 7 of his last 10 and at one point 7 in a row. So far, he's won his first two games in the big leagues and won every start at all levels of the minor leagues. Unfortunately, the Nationals still blow.
The German austerity package if passed will trigger another Great Depression. So far the euro is barely hanging on with defaults in Greece and upcoming defaults in Spain and Portugal. As European commentators have mentioned, austerity does not necessarily lead to prosperity. So far we have been insulated from this stage of the European crisis but we can't be for long. With deficit hawks in the ascendency in the United States and Britain, these austerity programs may be this century's equivalent of protectionism in the 1930s.
Newt told his Fox audience that in this case it was alright for Obama to use religious language during his address to the nation.
Haley Barbour, Governor of Mississippi, one of the states affected by the spill worried that the escrow account would affect BP's profits.
Sarah Palin said the Dutch could clean up the spill. She was referring to their skimmer technology. A little late in the day, Dutch's skimmer machines have been in the Gulf for the last few days.
The House Republicans entered an amendment yesterday to strip the health reform bill of the individuals mandates. It was defeated. Look for this throughout the next few years.
The Senate Republicans managed to block the extension of unemployment and Cobra as well as the emergency $50 billion funds for the bailout of states.
Meg Whitman put another $20 million of her personal wealth into her campaign coffers. This means she has put in $90 million of her own dough. Apparently, Meg also has anger issues, having fought an employee in 2007. The poor woman was trying to prepare her for an interview. Should be interesting if she wins the California state house.
The Christian Right is back in all its lunacy, saying that the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell would mean that God would make us lose wars. In case anyone has been watching, the United States hasn't won a clearcut battlefield victory in a long time. There has been so many statements and pronouncements by the Christian Right, you're better off checking www.rightwingwatch.com on a daily basis.
I think I've finally figured out this fascination of the Hard Right for the American revolution. It's the last "good war" in their minds that America fought. You can't embrace Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War because he was for big government, the wrong side won and the slaves were freed. You can't embrace WWII because FDR was the President and, in some minds on the right, the wrong side won again. And Vietnam doesn't do it because we lost and that was the period of the civil rights movement. And we know George W and Dick Cheney have been airbrushed out of the small government conservatives' history. The Spanish-American war is a no-no because it involves Hispanics and we want them deported.
Bill McCollum, who is running for the Republican nomination in Florida, is being successfully challenged by a hospital mongol, who has been convicted of felonies and forced to pay millions of dollars in fines. I guess the appeal is that this person was a CEO.
The final arguments for the Prop 8 trial are wrapping up today. The anti-gay lawyers are moving on another front to get the 18,000 legal gay marriages reversed. In my mind, the legal arguments have been all on the pro-gay side with the anti-gays having to invoke sociological studies done in the 1950s. But I am skeptical that the final arguments can move the current Supreme Court. Conservative lawyer Ted Olson disagrees but I believe he's naive about where the current court stands.
Jim Inhofe is doubling down on his anti-DADT repeal position. He went on the floor of the Senate yesterday saying that our armed forces simply won't fight with open gays in the military. Sort of like how it happened in Sparta and Rome.
All the polls this week except the AP poll show Republicans set to make big gains in the Congressional races. The volatility of these polls showing rapid changes in the generic congressional races and the vast ups and downs of Democrartic enthusiasm make me highly skeptical that we know anything about the state of the electorate. With jobs, the deficit and terrorism ranking as the top issues. I personally can't see how Republicans can capitalize on the jobs and deficit issue, although they talk a good game on terrorism.
Republicans have not created a job since 1990 and they have never acted as deficit hawks since Eisenhower. I can't see where they gain any credibility here, especially among independents. Unless something dramatic happens, terrorism doesn't trump the economy. As we've seen, Republicans are now embracing CEOs as their star candidates. But look at Whitman and Fiorina in California. Both of them gained their reputation by either outsourcing jobs or eliminating massive numbers of jobs nationwide but also in the very state they seek to represent.
On Taxes, Republicans claim they own the franchise in tax reduction but they opposed during the stimulus debate the largest tax cut for the middle class in history. Now they are framing the tax debate as if the financial concerns of the very wealthy are those of the rest of us. They may well pull that off with their spin machine. Most Americans don't believe Obama cut their taxes.
The fate of the free world hinges on Jack Nicholson just as it did in Mars Attacks. If Jack cheers on the Lakers well in Game 7, we will be saved. While not my favorite Laker team--Kareem and Magic--the Lakers must crush the Celtics if there is any justice in the world. As President Obama said, "the arc of history bends toward justice."
We salute Ken Griffey, who retired this past month. Finishing his career with 630 hrs, Griffey could have surpassed all homer records--natural or steroid infuenced--if his career in Cincinnati hadn't been plagued with injuries.
Yankee statisticians claim that Derek Jeter surpassed the 3,000 hit mark this week--if you include his playoff and world series hits. Hey, that's cheating. Let him do it straight. It should take two more months.
Meanwhile Nick Johnson made it another year in which he made the Disabled List. That makes every year that I have been following his career.
Shame on Brazil for only beating North Korea 2-1 in the World Cup. The North Korean team was made up of all males in the country who are given daily meals. Double shame on Spain for losing to Switzerland.
Washington is abuzz with the Rookie pitcher Stephen Strassburg, who struck out 14 in his first start and 7 of his last 10 and at one point 7 in a row. So far, he's won his first two games in the big leagues and won every start at all levels of the minor leagues. Unfortunately, the Nationals still blow.
The German austerity package if passed will trigger another Great Depression. So far the euro is barely hanging on with defaults in Greece and upcoming defaults in Spain and Portugal. As European commentators have mentioned, austerity does not necessarily lead to prosperity. So far we have been insulated from this stage of the European crisis but we can't be for long. With deficit hawks in the ascendency in the United States and Britain, these austerity programs may be this century's equivalent of protectionism in the 1930s.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
June Primaries
Last night I watched as every network, pundit, Politico, Karl Rove predicted Bill Halter would win the Democratic primary in Arkansas. Virtually everyone in the Beltway predicted it. So there is a lesson here--the pundits don't know anything and they are overpaid to not know anything. It was an early night as Blanche Lincoln won her primary. Either way, it looks like the next Senator from Arkansas will be the extreme-right wing Republican Boozman. Of course, Blanche received a little help with some suspicious closing of stations in her rival's areas of strength.
The sultry Sikh Nikki Haley is on the verge of winning the Republican nominee for Governor of South Carolina. She promises to resign if people really prove she had two affairs. In the state, the shocker for Republicans was that incumbent congressman Bob Inglis looks like he will lose the run-off to an even farther right-winger. The other upset was the impossible victory of Alvin Greene, an unemployed vet, as the Democratic nominee to run against Jim DeMint.
It was not a good night for Mike Huckabee, almost all the candidates he backed lost their primary bids. The good news is that all of them were from the Christian Right. Sarah Palin endorsements have been hailed as important but on closer look that doesn't look like much. She backed Nikki Haley, and the California girls, but her congressional candidates lost. Even the Chicken Lady, Sue Lowden, who was backed by Palin, lost. And Palin's previous support in Idaho boom-a-ranged on the candidate.
As for the great new hot shots picked by the Republican Congressional Committee, all three in Iowa lost and four others have lost in previous primaries. These were the hand-picked candidates of the party, who were given wads of money. They were beaten by people who had served in elected office before and campaigned on local, not national issues.
The new theme of the media is that this is the year of Conservative Women. I guess the anti-incumbent theme was not working out. But to make that work, you have to include Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman as conservatives and not robber barons. Whitman spent an astonishing $70 million of her own money to win the Republican primary in California; Fiorina $7 million of her own. While both went hard-right, it's ironic that both had contributed to the Gore and Boxer campaigns in the past. The only real right-wing high profile winner last night was Susan Angle, the John Bircher woman in Nevada.
In the anti-incumbent fever generated by the media, someone walked back the Gallup polls over the last two decades where over 40% of Americans didn't want their own congressman elected. Comparing the years with return of the incumbent, this blogger found that it was roughly 85% incumbents being re-elected. This person explained that this was logical because our system is a majority system and roughly 40% of Americans always want their incumbent out.
There is nothing in last night's elections that given any clue of some over-arching theme this year. In Nevada, it looks like voters will split their ticket--vote against Rory Reid, and vote for Harry. The Republicans actually nominated someone normal in Brian Sandoval, who beat sex-scandal plagued Gibbons. The great GOP targeting of Harry Reid is looking like it's going up in smoke.
Americans don't seem to care for rank amateurs. Jerry Brown easily won the Democratic nomination for governor in California; and former Governor Terry Branstad won the Republican nod in Iowa. And, Obama as the Black Bogeyman seems only to work in the already Republican south. People seem more interested in local affairs and not the political line du jour. Even the "white supremacists" in Montana didn't pull off the coup in the Republican primaries. Maybe Americans really don't like overtly creepy people.
I was devastated by the loss of Moldovan-Israeli karate expert Orly Taitz, the Queen of the Birthers. It would have made the Secretary of State race in California interesting.
Even Judge Roberts embrace of America by the corporations, for the corporations doesn't seem to be panning out so well. The Supreme Court has knocked out the Arizona Fair Elections law, which would have allowed state funding of elections. The timing would benefit John McCain but no one else. But even still, the heavily corporate funded Republican "hot shots" lost. The wealthy candidates like Whitman, Fiorina and Linda McMahon have won but on their own dime.
So far, I'm still at a traditional view of the 2010 election--usual losses of the president's party according to historical lines--nothing so dramatic.
I keep watching the Texas governor's race. it seems the GOP is taking no chances but trying to facilitate the Green Party getting on the ballot.
The sultry Sikh Nikki Haley is on the verge of winning the Republican nominee for Governor of South Carolina. She promises to resign if people really prove she had two affairs. In the state, the shocker for Republicans was that incumbent congressman Bob Inglis looks like he will lose the run-off to an even farther right-winger. The other upset was the impossible victory of Alvin Greene, an unemployed vet, as the Democratic nominee to run against Jim DeMint.
It was not a good night for Mike Huckabee, almost all the candidates he backed lost their primary bids. The good news is that all of them were from the Christian Right. Sarah Palin endorsements have been hailed as important but on closer look that doesn't look like much. She backed Nikki Haley, and the California girls, but her congressional candidates lost. Even the Chicken Lady, Sue Lowden, who was backed by Palin, lost. And Palin's previous support in Idaho boom-a-ranged on the candidate.
As for the great new hot shots picked by the Republican Congressional Committee, all three in Iowa lost and four others have lost in previous primaries. These were the hand-picked candidates of the party, who were given wads of money. They were beaten by people who had served in elected office before and campaigned on local, not national issues.
The new theme of the media is that this is the year of Conservative Women. I guess the anti-incumbent theme was not working out. But to make that work, you have to include Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman as conservatives and not robber barons. Whitman spent an astonishing $70 million of her own money to win the Republican primary in California; Fiorina $7 million of her own. While both went hard-right, it's ironic that both had contributed to the Gore and Boxer campaigns in the past. The only real right-wing high profile winner last night was Susan Angle, the John Bircher woman in Nevada.
In the anti-incumbent fever generated by the media, someone walked back the Gallup polls over the last two decades where over 40% of Americans didn't want their own congressman elected. Comparing the years with return of the incumbent, this blogger found that it was roughly 85% incumbents being re-elected. This person explained that this was logical because our system is a majority system and roughly 40% of Americans always want their incumbent out.
There is nothing in last night's elections that given any clue of some over-arching theme this year. In Nevada, it looks like voters will split their ticket--vote against Rory Reid, and vote for Harry. The Republicans actually nominated someone normal in Brian Sandoval, who beat sex-scandal plagued Gibbons. The great GOP targeting of Harry Reid is looking like it's going up in smoke.
Americans don't seem to care for rank amateurs. Jerry Brown easily won the Democratic nomination for governor in California; and former Governor Terry Branstad won the Republican nod in Iowa. And, Obama as the Black Bogeyman seems only to work in the already Republican south. People seem more interested in local affairs and not the political line du jour. Even the "white supremacists" in Montana didn't pull off the coup in the Republican primaries. Maybe Americans really don't like overtly creepy people.
I was devastated by the loss of Moldovan-Israeli karate expert Orly Taitz, the Queen of the Birthers. It would have made the Secretary of State race in California interesting.
Even Judge Roberts embrace of America by the corporations, for the corporations doesn't seem to be panning out so well. The Supreme Court has knocked out the Arizona Fair Elections law, which would have allowed state funding of elections. The timing would benefit John McCain but no one else. But even still, the heavily corporate funded Republican "hot shots" lost. The wealthy candidates like Whitman, Fiorina and Linda McMahon have won but on their own dime.
So far, I'm still at a traditional view of the 2010 election--usual losses of the president's party according to historical lines--nothing so dramatic.
I keep watching the Texas governor's race. it seems the GOP is taking no chances but trying to facilitate the Green Party getting on the ballot.
Monday, May 10, 2010
When the Ship Comes In
Elena Kagan has been launched with a TV ad and Obama's video e-mail to Organizing for America members. I would loved to be introduced the way she was by the President. Although do we really need to have each nominee have a story? The bottom-line like Sotomayor, she's a moderate liberal. Now we're being told she's a blank slate and a risky pick because all we have to go on is her writing, his professional experience and her teaching career. And she was even paid $10,000 as a consultant to Goldman Sachs, owners of America.
To alienate the Left, it's been reported that Elena Kagan said there is no federal constitutional right for same sex marriage, although that's not how Ted Olson will be argue it before the Supreme Court. All marriage laws are local. And she reportedly advised Bill Clinton to ban late-term abortions. To the right, she's a closeted lesbian--I guess that's the new term for professional woman--and an activist judge who will "subvert the Court's pro-business tilt." Little Billy Kristol today retrenched, saying she would have to apologize for her stance on military recruitment on campuses. College dropout Rush Limbaugh said " she's elitist." While I went to the University of Chicago and Harvard for my graduate work, I do distrust people who went to Princeton for their undergraduate--even Sonya Sotomayor. And, horrors of horrors, she's another woman from New York City.
Jim Inhofe from the state of Oklahoma has already stated he will oppose because she puts political correctness above our national security--in regard to the DADT policies. Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions claims she's an activist, who will not follow the original intent of the Constitution like, for instance,the Supreme Court's decision on Citizens United, which ignored the Founding Father's anti-corporate animus and expanded the notion of legal person to let foreign and domestic companies give unlimited funds to political campaigns. I'm being snarky. The GOP will definitely try to get her on the record in terms of the constitutionality of the health care bill.
While Michael Steele today embraced slavery by slamming her support of Thursgood Marshall's statement that the Constitution was flawed, some blogger happened to discover George Washington's letter to his nephew where Washington reflected that the Constitution was "not free from imperfections." Of course, the natural answer is that it had to be imperfect otherwise why would it need amendments. And, let's not forget, after slaves were freed, there was quite a wait to give women their rights.
Patrick Leahy got the gist right,"The President could have nominated Moses and the Republicans would have objected and asked him for his birth certificate."
The strategy of the GOP is to fling paper in the air and make accusations after accusations until something sticks. Their ultimate goal is to delay any other agenda items of the President and to push this past the August recess because "that forces the red and purple state Democrats to have to go home and face their constituents." It's simply another form of obstructionism.
In the last few days there has been a rash of other states who want to emulate the Arizona immigration law. However, immigration reform has gotten a boost from the evangelical community. It's not because they repented or re-read the New Testament. It's they did the math. Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention's public policy wing, Matthew Staver, dean of Liberty University School of Law, Rev. Samuel Rodriquez, an Hispanic evangelist, and Rick Tyler of Newt Gingrich's group announced they would lobby Congress for quick passage of immigration reform.
In their statement, they said,"We must allow the millions of undocumented and otherwise law-abiding persons living in our midst to come out of the shadows".
Richard Land, speaking about Hispanics voting Democratic, stated the objective bluntly," Hispanics are hard-wired to be like us (Southerners) on the sanctity of life, marriage and issues of faith. I'm concerned about being perceived as being unwelcoming to them." You Betcha.
This will be fascinating to watch as it plays out, especially in the list of states in the South, which I wrote about yesterday.
But here in the original capital of the Confederacy, Bob "Jobs" McDonnell has appointed Fred Malek, Sarah Palin's adviser to chair the state commission to restructure government. Fred is best known as the man Nixon appointed to develop lists of all the Jews in the Nixon White House. So I guess his new job is to follow the Governor's passion and find out how many gays work for the Virginia government.
And finally the BIG FLOP. Billionairess Meg Whitman once had a 50-point lead against teabagger Steve Poizner, then two weeks ago it dropped to a 22 -point lead. Yesterday after ads linked her to Goldman Sachs, she only leads by 2 points. I'm having a tough time wrapping my mind around the victory of Governor Moonbeam, Jerry Brown.
One hopeful note--One third of all birthers approve of Obama's handling of the Presidency. My response to a conservative e-mailer today was that even they know the white boys screwed up so now we have to get foreigners to clean up the mess.
Remember: "Every day in the United States of America is secular."
To alienate the Left, it's been reported that Elena Kagan said there is no federal constitutional right for same sex marriage, although that's not how Ted Olson will be argue it before the Supreme Court. All marriage laws are local. And she reportedly advised Bill Clinton to ban late-term abortions. To the right, she's a closeted lesbian--I guess that's the new term for professional woman--and an activist judge who will "subvert the Court's pro-business tilt." Little Billy Kristol today retrenched, saying she would have to apologize for her stance on military recruitment on campuses. College dropout Rush Limbaugh said " she's elitist." While I went to the University of Chicago and Harvard for my graduate work, I do distrust people who went to Princeton for their undergraduate--even Sonya Sotomayor. And, horrors of horrors, she's another woman from New York City.
Jim Inhofe from the state of Oklahoma has already stated he will oppose because she puts political correctness above our national security--in regard to the DADT policies. Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions claims she's an activist, who will not follow the original intent of the Constitution like, for instance,the Supreme Court's decision on Citizens United, which ignored the Founding Father's anti-corporate animus and expanded the notion of legal person to let foreign and domestic companies give unlimited funds to political campaigns. I'm being snarky. The GOP will definitely try to get her on the record in terms of the constitutionality of the health care bill.
While Michael Steele today embraced slavery by slamming her support of Thursgood Marshall's statement that the Constitution was flawed, some blogger happened to discover George Washington's letter to his nephew where Washington reflected that the Constitution was "not free from imperfections." Of course, the natural answer is that it had to be imperfect otherwise why would it need amendments. And, let's not forget, after slaves were freed, there was quite a wait to give women their rights.
Patrick Leahy got the gist right,"The President could have nominated Moses and the Republicans would have objected and asked him for his birth certificate."
The strategy of the GOP is to fling paper in the air and make accusations after accusations until something sticks. Their ultimate goal is to delay any other agenda items of the President and to push this past the August recess because "that forces the red and purple state Democrats to have to go home and face their constituents." It's simply another form of obstructionism.
In the last few days there has been a rash of other states who want to emulate the Arizona immigration law. However, immigration reform has gotten a boost from the evangelical community. It's not because they repented or re-read the New Testament. It's they did the math. Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention's public policy wing, Matthew Staver, dean of Liberty University School of Law, Rev. Samuel Rodriquez, an Hispanic evangelist, and Rick Tyler of Newt Gingrich's group announced they would lobby Congress for quick passage of immigration reform.
In their statement, they said,"We must allow the millions of undocumented and otherwise law-abiding persons living in our midst to come out of the shadows".
Richard Land, speaking about Hispanics voting Democratic, stated the objective bluntly," Hispanics are hard-wired to be like us (Southerners) on the sanctity of life, marriage and issues of faith. I'm concerned about being perceived as being unwelcoming to them." You Betcha.
This will be fascinating to watch as it plays out, especially in the list of states in the South, which I wrote about yesterday.
But here in the original capital of the Confederacy, Bob "Jobs" McDonnell has appointed Fred Malek, Sarah Palin's adviser to chair the state commission to restructure government. Fred is best known as the man Nixon appointed to develop lists of all the Jews in the Nixon White House. So I guess his new job is to follow the Governor's passion and find out how many gays work for the Virginia government.
And finally the BIG FLOP. Billionairess Meg Whitman once had a 50-point lead against teabagger Steve Poizner, then two weeks ago it dropped to a 22 -point lead. Yesterday after ads linked her to Goldman Sachs, she only leads by 2 points. I'm having a tough time wrapping my mind around the victory of Governor Moonbeam, Jerry Brown.
One hopeful note--One third of all birthers approve of Obama's handling of the Presidency. My response to a conservative e-mailer today was that even they know the white boys screwed up so now we have to get foreigners to clean up the mess.
Remember: "Every day in the United States of America is secular."
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Rainbow Bridge-Last Thoughts of the Day
There are now 44 votes in the Senate for the public option.
Now it's estimated there will be 750,000 jobs created by May.
Edmund Morris has surfaced again with an article of how Obama is reading his biography of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a fine biography. I used to pity Edmund because he would always drop into Olsson's to check out how his books were selling. He would ask whether the store wanted him to autograph those they had for sale. The problem for a bookseller is that once autographed, you can't return for credit. He has the historian's golden task. Ronald Reagan asked him to sit in the White House and watch a real President work. He could write anything he wanted on the condition it was after the presidency ended. He did this. He suffered from writer's block, then had a nervous breakdown because he couldn't after all those years figure Reagan out. Finally, he completed his biography but it did not meet with approval from critics. Luckily, he wrote the long-awaited second volume of his biography of Theodore Roosevelt and once again found his voice.
The blogosphere is like a Ouji board. With my spontaneous eruptions over my growing doubts about Rasmussen polls, Kos pens "Rasmussen Flooding the Zone". He points out that Rasmussen has conducted some 45 polls this year compared to 13 in the same span of time last year. An other blogger decided to investigate Rasmussen's client list and dragged up the usual K Street clients and other public associations. Let him at it.
But Kos' observations about three gubernatorial races bears repeating. Rasmussen's results dramatically differ from respectable polls done at the same time. Here are the comparisons:
Colorado Governor Hickenlooper (D) McInnis (R)
Rasmussen poll 42% 48%
PPP 50% 39%
Ohio Governor Strickland (D) Kasich (R)
Rasmussen 38% 49%
Quinnipiac 44% 39%
Illinois Governor Quinn (D) Brady (R)
Rasmussen 37% 47%
Rs2000 47% 32%
I am sure Nate Silver will weigh on this now that several websites are beginning to actively ask questions about the Rasmussen polls. Unfortunately, Nate has built up a relationship with Rasmussen and has been a little defensive when he addressed a similar concern about Obama's approval ratings several months ago.
One of the things that started ringing bills for me were the strange approval ratings Republican candidates started having several months ago. Many of these people were unknowns even in their own states but would show large approval ratings that made no sense. If this were also true of Democrats, you would think it were just an aberration of the polls in general. But throughout the nation, even in the most Democratic states, Republican candidates would show these very strong approval ratings. And with Obama, we have other reputable polling outfits to compare with. In the presidential approval ratings, usually Gallup will serve as a benchmark to measure the reliability of others. And Rasmussen has failed this simple test for over a year.
The backlash finally got too much with Governor McDonnell here in Virginia. He had to over-ride his Attorney-General and issue executive orders protecting gays from discrimination. The lesson in this is "Fight Back."
Speaking of strange polls, Quinnipiac has been polling the issue of whether Governor Patterson of New York should resign or complete his full term. Last week, over 60% of New Yorkers said he should resign. They polled again this week and 50% say he should serve the compete term and only 38% believe he should resign. Go figure.
Meg Whitman has really been an ace campaigner for Governor of California. The former Ebay lady called a press conference at a location where she was to be seen with other business executives showing her businesslike characteristics, which will bring full employment to all the people of that state. But she refused to answer questions from the press or make a statement or even be filmed meeting with the executives. The TV anchorwoman quipped,"It's always great to see a candidate in charge of her own campaign". She must have taken lessons from Sarah Palin but she doesn't tweet.
Those social gospel fanatics are at it again. "Heaven has no boundaries" is the slogan of the Catholic Church's push for immigration reform. Hispanics are antsy the Obama Administration has deported the same amount of people that the Bush Administration did in its last year. Charles Schumer and Lindsey Graham have a draft bill for the Senate but there is no second Republican sponsor. The House already has its bill ready.
Politico is making mischief again by saying Obama's intentions are unclear over immigration reform. They might want to review the contents of the Kennedy-McCain bill which had been sabotaged by the right. Obama was one of the key drafters of the bill. There is no ambiguity here. After the health care reform bill, I think this will be the last major domestic reform Obama will get through this year.
The Senate did finally get around to cleaning up the mess that Bunning caused by passing a bill to extend unemployment insurance and COBRA for another year and to patch up the holes in Medicare funding. Even six Republicans joined the parade.
Tom DeLay of Dancing with the Stars fame said that unemployment compensation made people lazy and not get a job. This is a throwback to the days of welfare queens, except now the people are white. How one can say this during a severe recession is too much. But what really takes the cake is the Washington Post actually printing an article taking this premise seriously,"Some Worry that Unemployment Insurance Make People lazy" or a headline similar. Naturally, they have to quote Jim Bunning and other Republicans as if this is a legitimate position. They did the samething by giving Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol an opportunity to respond to the critics of the Al Qaeda 7 ad.
The unions are now playing hardball on the healthcare bill. They are saying they will oppose anyone who votes against it. Now, of course, this gets played in Drudge as Illinois mob tactics. Well, good for them. Howard Dean again said he would work for the public option until it was done. Hopefully, he knoww something. The Left is getting annoyed with Dennis "the Menace" Kuchinich because of his outspoken criticisms of the health care proposals. President Obama is travelling to Cleveland again next week to hold another one of his health care townhall meetings. He's hoping to persuade at least two more Ohio congresspeople to vote in favor.
And Hapless Harry Reid is promising filibuster reform. That was earlier today and then about an hour ago he said,"Next year". And you wonder why people have problems with Congress.
Now it's estimated there will be 750,000 jobs created by May.
Edmund Morris has surfaced again with an article of how Obama is reading his biography of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a fine biography. I used to pity Edmund because he would always drop into Olsson's to check out how his books were selling. He would ask whether the store wanted him to autograph those they had for sale. The problem for a bookseller is that once autographed, you can't return for credit. He has the historian's golden task. Ronald Reagan asked him to sit in the White House and watch a real President work. He could write anything he wanted on the condition it was after the presidency ended. He did this. He suffered from writer's block, then had a nervous breakdown because he couldn't after all those years figure Reagan out. Finally, he completed his biography but it did not meet with approval from critics. Luckily, he wrote the long-awaited second volume of his biography of Theodore Roosevelt and once again found his voice.
The blogosphere is like a Ouji board. With my spontaneous eruptions over my growing doubts about Rasmussen polls, Kos pens "Rasmussen Flooding the Zone". He points out that Rasmussen has conducted some 45 polls this year compared to 13 in the same span of time last year. An other blogger decided to investigate Rasmussen's client list and dragged up the usual K Street clients and other public associations. Let him at it.
But Kos' observations about three gubernatorial races bears repeating. Rasmussen's results dramatically differ from respectable polls done at the same time. Here are the comparisons:
Colorado Governor Hickenlooper (D) McInnis (R)
Rasmussen poll 42% 48%
PPP 50% 39%
Ohio Governor Strickland (D) Kasich (R)
Rasmussen 38% 49%
Quinnipiac 44% 39%
Illinois Governor Quinn (D) Brady (R)
Rasmussen 37% 47%
Rs2000 47% 32%
I am sure Nate Silver will weigh on this now that several websites are beginning to actively ask questions about the Rasmussen polls. Unfortunately, Nate has built up a relationship with Rasmussen and has been a little defensive when he addressed a similar concern about Obama's approval ratings several months ago.
One of the things that started ringing bills for me were the strange approval ratings Republican candidates started having several months ago. Many of these people were unknowns even in their own states but would show large approval ratings that made no sense. If this were also true of Democrats, you would think it were just an aberration of the polls in general. But throughout the nation, even in the most Democratic states, Republican candidates would show these very strong approval ratings. And with Obama, we have other reputable polling outfits to compare with. In the presidential approval ratings, usually Gallup will serve as a benchmark to measure the reliability of others. And Rasmussen has failed this simple test for over a year.
The backlash finally got too much with Governor McDonnell here in Virginia. He had to over-ride his Attorney-General and issue executive orders protecting gays from discrimination. The lesson in this is "Fight Back."
Speaking of strange polls, Quinnipiac has been polling the issue of whether Governor Patterson of New York should resign or complete his full term. Last week, over 60% of New Yorkers said he should resign. They polled again this week and 50% say he should serve the compete term and only 38% believe he should resign. Go figure.
Meg Whitman has really been an ace campaigner for Governor of California. The former Ebay lady called a press conference at a location where she was to be seen with other business executives showing her businesslike characteristics, which will bring full employment to all the people of that state. But she refused to answer questions from the press or make a statement or even be filmed meeting with the executives. The TV anchorwoman quipped,"It's always great to see a candidate in charge of her own campaign". She must have taken lessons from Sarah Palin but she doesn't tweet.
Those social gospel fanatics are at it again. "Heaven has no boundaries" is the slogan of the Catholic Church's push for immigration reform. Hispanics are antsy the Obama Administration has deported the same amount of people that the Bush Administration did in its last year. Charles Schumer and Lindsey Graham have a draft bill for the Senate but there is no second Republican sponsor. The House already has its bill ready.
Politico is making mischief again by saying Obama's intentions are unclear over immigration reform. They might want to review the contents of the Kennedy-McCain bill which had been sabotaged by the right. Obama was one of the key drafters of the bill. There is no ambiguity here. After the health care reform bill, I think this will be the last major domestic reform Obama will get through this year.
The Senate did finally get around to cleaning up the mess that Bunning caused by passing a bill to extend unemployment insurance and COBRA for another year and to patch up the holes in Medicare funding. Even six Republicans joined the parade.
Tom DeLay of Dancing with the Stars fame said that unemployment compensation made people lazy and not get a job. This is a throwback to the days of welfare queens, except now the people are white. How one can say this during a severe recession is too much. But what really takes the cake is the Washington Post actually printing an article taking this premise seriously,"Some Worry that Unemployment Insurance Make People lazy" or a headline similar. Naturally, they have to quote Jim Bunning and other Republicans as if this is a legitimate position. They did the samething by giving Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol an opportunity to respond to the critics of the Al Qaeda 7 ad.
The unions are now playing hardball on the healthcare bill. They are saying they will oppose anyone who votes against it. Now, of course, this gets played in Drudge as Illinois mob tactics. Well, good for them. Howard Dean again said he would work for the public option until it was done. Hopefully, he knoww something. The Left is getting annoyed with Dennis "the Menace" Kuchinich because of his outspoken criticisms of the health care proposals. President Obama is travelling to Cleveland again next week to hold another one of his health care townhall meetings. He's hoping to persuade at least two more Ohio congresspeople to vote in favor.
And Hapless Harry Reid is promising filibuster reform. That was earlier today and then about an hour ago he said,"Next year". And you wonder why people have problems with Congress.
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