Category Archives: Elections

September 16, 2011 · 9:09 pm

Poll: Just 12% happy with Congress

I want to know what’s wrong with the 12% who are “happy” with Congress!  There aren’t that many rich people….

It will be interesting to see how this plays out by the time the elections roll around next year.  Either people are going to throw up their hands and stay home- thinking it doesn’t matter if they vote- which is what the GOP wants or people are going to throw the bums out…

Who knows which way it will break?

From CBS:

In the midst of a bleak economic landscape and after a bruising battle over the federal budget deficit, approval of Congress now matches its all-time low, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll.

Just 12 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing – the same as the lowest percentage recorded in this poll, reached in October 2008, right before the November elections.

Dissatisfaction with Congress cuts across party lines. Republicans, Democrats, and independents all overwhelmingly disapprove of the job Congress is doing.

Though most Americans disapprove of both parties in Congress, they disapprove of Republicans more. Seventy-two percent of Americans disapprove of the job Republicans in Congress are doing, compared to 63 percent who disapprove of the Democrats in Congress.

Among Democrats, more approve than disapprove of the job Democrats in Congress are doing. That is reversed for Republicans – more of them disapprove than approve of the job members of their own party are doing in Congress. Independents disapprove of both parties in Congress.

In keeping with Congress’ dismal review, just 6 percent of registered voters think most members deserve re-election – the lowest percentage ever in CBS News Polls during the past 20 years, and a lower percentage than the 9 percent who thought so right before the 2010 midterms.

(Credit: CBS News/NYT Poll) Americans are usually more positive when assessing their own representative in Congress.

That’s true now, too – 33 percent say their representative deserves re election – but nearly six in 10 registered voters don’t think their own representative deserves re-election. That percentage is close to the highest found in CBS News Polls.

via Poll: Just 12% happy with Congress – Political Hotsheet – CBS News.

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September 14, 2011 · 11:15 pm

Libertarian Legacy? Ron Paul’s Campaign Manager, 49, Dies Uninsured Leaving Family $400,000 Debt

You have to wonder if these Ivory Tower Libertarians and Conservatives ever really contemplate the real-world implications of their policies….

Sadly, this poor guy found out the hard way:

The Wall Street journal reports that Kent, more than anyone else, persuaded Ron Paul to run for president. And Kent, according to the WSJ, developed what “ultimately became a $35 million operation with 250 employees that helped deliver more than one million votes for the Texas congressman’s bid in the Republican nominating contest.”-

Ron Paul posted this message about Snyder on his website: “”Like so many in our movement, Kent sacrificed much for the cause of liberty, Kent poured every ounce of his being into our fight for freedom. He will always hold a place in my heart and in the hearts of my family.”

Sadly, the Libertarian heart apparently does not include health care. The poor guy raised tens of millions of dollars and couldn’t afford the $300-$600 a month that COBRA medical insurance would have cost.

Paul has some good ideas– get out of Iraq, get the US out of a lot of other countries. But his opposition to government, to universal health care– these ideas just don’t work– and his campaign manager’s death makes a tragic example of it.

via OpEdNews – Article: Libertarian Legacy? Ron Paul’s Campaign Manager, 49, Dies Uninsured, Of Pneumonia, Leaving family $400,000 Debt.

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September 8, 2011 · 9:27 am

Rick Perry Campaign Refuses To Rule Out Ending Social Security

This proves:

a) Governor GoodHair is just as stupid as has been reported

b) He thinks the Dems are too stupid to play this position up in the General Election

c) He knows this is now the official GOP Platform plank and he’s too stupid to hide it like the rest of them

d) He spends so much time with Rich People and egghead Conservative theorists, he thinks this is a popular, winning position.

e) All of the Above

Make no mistake about it: Rick Perry is running against Social Security. Last night in the debate, Perry stood by his oft-repeated claims that the popular government retirement program is a Ponzi Scheme and a “failure.”

And after the debate, Team Perry refused to rule out ending the program all together under a Perry presidency.

From the Huffington Post’s Jon Ward:

A top Perry aide refused, under repeated questions from The Huffington Post, to rule out the idea that Perry would favor dissolving altogether the 76-year-old program that pays out benefits to seniors.

“I’m not going to parse his words,” Perry aide Ray Sullivan told Ward after the debate when asked “why he would not just say that Perry does not want to end the program.”

via Rick Perry Campaign Refuses To Rule Out Ending Social Security | Election 2012.

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September 8, 2011 · 9:17 am

FALLING OUT OF THE MIDDLE CLASS: A Statistical Look At The People Who Have Lost The Most

It’s becoming an accepted probability, for the first time in our history that, in financial terms, children will probably not do as well as their parents.

Thanks to Republican policy since Reagan-with notable assists from the Dems on many occasions, thanks to the decline of Unions, thanks to the loss of well paying manufacturing jobs, thanks to declining educational standards, thanks to our contaminated food supply, thanks to the redistribution of wealth to the top 1%, thanks to a lot of poor decisions by a lot of people….

 

This puts some numbers around who is most likely, demographically speaking, to have been pushed out of the Middle Class– so far.

From YahooNews.com.  Hat Tip to my friend Kirk for sending me the article:

 

The American Dream of upward social mobility has stalled for some people, according to a big new study from Pew.

The study checked in on a bunch of middle class teenagers from 1979 to see how they were doing 25 years later. Notably this survey was performed before the Great Recession, so most of these numbers would be worse today.

Pew found that 28% of the sample group had fallen out of the middle class. This number was significantly higher for certain demographic groups including divorced women and black men.

Divorced women are 35.8% more likely to have fallen out of the middle class.

Divorced men are 13% more likely to have fallen out of the middle class.

Unmarried women are 17.6% more likely to have fallen out of the middle class.

Unmarried men are 10% more likely to have fallen out of the middle class.

Black men are 17% more likely to have fallen out of the middle class (vs white men).

Black women are 5% more likely to have fallen out of the middle class (vs white women)

Women without a college degree are 16.3% more likely to have fallen out of the middle class.

Men without a college degree are 7.5% more likely to have fallen out of the middle class.

Hispanic men are 8% more likely to have fallen out of the middle class (vs white men).

Hispanic women are actually 2% less likely to have fallen out of the middle class (vs white women).

via FALLING OUT OF THE MIDDLE CLASS: A Statistical Look At The People Who Have Lost The Most | Daily Ticker – Yahoo! Finance.

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September 4, 2011 · 6:46 pm

Beware Rick Perry: The Bushies Are At It Again…

The Bushies really hate Rick Perry, so they are going after Chris “Two Tons of Fun” Christie, the NJ Governor to try to push him into the GOP Presidential Primary to undercut Perry.

And Sarah Palin is still doing her Hamlet routine:  To run or not to run, that is the question….

The fun is just beginning….

 

The speculation simply won’t die. On Sunday, former George W. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson said that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was “actively” weighing the option of jumping into the Republican presidential race amid voter discontent with the current field.

“I don’t think Republicans regard this as a strong field,” Gerson said, during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week.” “So there is still talk of people getting in the race. Not just [Sarah] Palin but last week, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey was in Chicago and had two meetings with serious Republican groups from the Midwest.”

via Chris Christie ‘Actively.. Considering Getting In This Race’: Bush Aide.

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August 30, 2011 · 8:34 pm

Michele Bachmann Claims Her Hurricane Comments Were Only a Joke

Yeah, right….

More proof she is not only a nutcase, but a dishonest nutcase who won’t even stand by her crazy statements after she makes them….

This is why she can’t keep anyone on her staff for very long….

From The Guardian (UK):

The Republican White House hopeful Michele Bachmann has insisted she was joking when she said a hurricane and quake were God’s warning to Washington, in an effort to control the damage from her latest controversial comments.

The Tea Party favourite raised eyebrows with a weekend remark to supporters in Florida that Hurricane Irene, which killed at least 24 people and left millions without power, and an east coast earthquake were God’s way of telling US politicians to cut spending and fix the budget deficit.

“I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane. He said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me here?’ ” Bachmann said at a campaign event in Sarasota on Sunday.

“Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we’ve got to rein in the spending.”

Bachmann, among the top three candidates seen to have a chance to win the Republican nomination and take on President Barack Obama next year, made similar comments elsewhere in Florida on Saturday, drawing some laughs from her audience.

When the remarks began drawing attention, she went into damage control. “Of course I was being humorous when I said that. It would be absurd to think it was anything else,” Bachmann said on Monday on a campaign stop in Miami. “I am a person who loves humour, I have a great sense of humour.”

via Michele Bachmann’s hurricane comments were only a joke, she says | World news | The Guardian.

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August 30, 2011 · 8:21 pm

Some GOP Donors Think Bachmann is Jewish

What the hell????

Don’t these folks read anything?  Or at least watch television? How can they not know Michele Bachmann is a crazed, Right-Wing, Evangelical Christian nutcase?

Of course if these folks are donating to the GOP they have to be either nuts themselves or Rich and selfish or ignorant anyway….

Some Jewish donors are telling fundraisers for Mitt Romney that while they like him, they’d rather open their wallets for the “Jewish candidate,” Michele Bachmann, who they don’t realize is actually a Lutheran, the New York Post reports.

“Some in Romney’s camp have been wondering whether Bachmann and her allies are pushing the ‘Jewish’ rumor to help their own fund-raising… She has enjoyed strong popularity among Jewish voters and often talks about her stay on a kibbutz during the summer of 1974, when she was a teenager.”

via Some Donors Think Bachmann is Jewish.

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August 30, 2011 · 8:13 pm

Never-fail prediction system shows 2012 win for Obama

Very interesting article from RawStory.com

Nothing is a sure thing, but I’ll take anything that eases my fear of a GOP win!  I can’t imagine what they would do to the country if they were to be back in control of the Presidency at this point.  They are even crazier now than during the Bush years.

No matter what issues we may have with President Obama or his leadership style, he is by far the best option- for Democrats and the Country.

 

American University professor Allan Lichtman is on a winning streak spanning nearly three decades — one that President Barack Obama might have an interest in seeing Lichtman extend.

Lichtman created a formula that has correctly predicted the winner of each election since 1984, beginning with the reelection of President Ronald Reagan, U.S. News and World Report reported. The formula that predicted Obama’s 2008 win is again showing that the incumbent president will win the election, despite the term-low approval rating Obama has been maintaining for past weeks.

“Even if I am being conservative, I don’t see how Obama can lose,” Lichtman said.

His model, described in his book The Keys to the White House, relies on 13 “keys” that gauge the performance of the sitting president’s party. If six or more of these aspects are in the party’s favor, the candidate they present will win.

Nine of the keys fall in Obama’s favor, Lichtman said — more than enough for reelection.

Created in 1981 and first tested against the 1984 election, Lichtman’s model hasn’t failed yet.

Even in 1992, when President George H.W. Bush was riding a wave of popularity and widely expected to win, Lichtman thought otherwise.

“I got a call from this woman with a thick southern drawl,” Lichtman said. “It was Clinton’s special assistant. She wanted to know if it was true that a Democrat could win. I assured her it was and I sent Clinton a copy of my book and a memo and the rest is history.”

via Never-fail prediction system shows 2012 win for Obama | The Raw Story.

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August 26, 2011 · 8:08 pm

Republican Senator Makes Excuse For Explicit Nude Photo

Here we go again….

From The Advocate.com:

Republican Puerto Rican senator Roberto Arango won’t say he didn’t take a very explicit nude photo that has surfaced on his alleged profile on gay hookup site Grindr, reports Gawker.

Arango hasn’t confirmed or denied that he took the photo or that the Grindr profile belongs to him. “You know I’ve been losing weight,” Aango says. “As I shed that weight, I’ve been taking pictures. I don’t remember taking this particular picture but I’m not gonna say I didn’t take it. I’d tell you if I remembered taking the picture but I don’t.”

Arango, who is a member of the Puerto Rican Senate, was vice-chair to George W. Bush’s 2004 Puerto Rico campaign

via Republican Senator Makes Excuse For Explicit Nude Photo on Grindr | News | The Advocate.

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August 25, 2011 · 6:00 pm

Peter Kinder, Missouri Republican Lt. Governor, Embroiled In Stripper Scandal

Don’t you just love those fiscally Conservative, Family Values Tea Party Republicans?

I think this guy just heard the “party” part….

Hypocrites….

Click the HuffingtonPost link to see the video:

 

Peter Kinder, the Lieutenant Governor of Missouri, is at the center of racy allegations.

St Louis area stripper Tammy Chapman says that Kinder pursued an inappropriate relationship with her, and was a regular at a local strip bar.

Kinder is a single man, but as a Tea Party-backed political, the revelations do little to endear him to that conservative group.

The L.A. Times reports that some of Kinder’s political allies have deserted him.

Southwest Missouri GOP committeeman Tim Garrison also withdrew support for Kinder, saying Kinder’s claim that he only stopped by the pantless bar to use the bathroom “do not pass the laugh test,” according to a letter obtained by the Post-Dispatch. Kinder says he has not been to a strip club in 10 years, but that didn’t sway Garrison.

via Peter Kinder, Missouri Lt. Governor, Embroiled In Stripper Scandal (VIDEO).

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