Category Archives: Politics

Ken Mehlman: I Am Sorry For Helping Bush Exploit Anti-Gay Sentiment

From the “Too Little, Too Late” Department….

As close as the Bush Elections were, firing up the Social Conservatives on anti-gay issues was probably enough to make Bush president….

You can’t be absolved of a sin that big with a simple “I’m sorry”….

Also, I strongly expect he’s only saying this now that he’s out of politics and has made his money because his former “friends” in the GOP have turned their backs on him and most Gay people detest him so much he can’t get a date, much less a husband….

What goes around, comes around…..

From ThinkProgress.org:

 

Former RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman has issued what may be his first public apology for his role in fomenting anti-gay sentiment during President George W. Bush’s 2004 re-election bid:As for his role in the 2004 Bush campaign and its exploitation of marital politics, Mehlman is candid — and remorseful.“At a personal level, I wish I had spoken out against the effort,” he says. “As I’ve been involved in the fight for marriage equality, one of the things I’ve learned is how many people were harmed by the campaigns in which I was involved. I apologize to them and tell them I am sorry. While there have been recent victories, this could still be a long struggle in which there will be setbacks, and I’ll do my part to be helpful.”Eleven states voted on ballot measures banning same-sex marriage during the 2004 election, as conservatives hoped to bring out their base for the President. But political scientists have said that the turnout in those states “was no higher than in the 39 without them” and estimate that “the presence of these referendums likely had no effect on the outcome of the Bush-Kerry presidential contest.” Meanwhile, Mehlman — who came out as gay in 2010 — has worked to advance same-sex marriage in New York, Maryland, and New Hampshire.

via Ken Mehlman: I Am Sorry For Helping Bush Exploit Anti-Gay Sentiment, I Wish I Had Spoken Out | ThinkProgress.

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Bank of America: Breaking Up is Hard to Do

The latest BofA ad….

My friend Kirk sent this to me and I thought it was cute, fun, accurate and worth sharing…

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FDR Warned Us about Social Security and the GOP….

Back in the 1930’s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt foresaw today’s GOP and their tactics….

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For Women Under 30, Most Births Occur Outside Marriage

This is a very thought provoking article that I recently read in the New York Times.

There is a lot to consider here and a lot to think about and discuss….

But one thing is clear:  The Families Values crowd is blatantly out of touch with the reality of modern American life.  Not just for Gays, but for Women…

They argue incessantly for the Nuclear Family, that is pretty much becoming a minority situation- just like the GOP.

And their recent attacks on birth control availability seems sheer madness in light of realities such as these….

Whether they like it or not, it’s not the 1950’s anymore and Ward and June Cleever are gone….

Abstinence Based Sex Education just isn’t realistic…

It’s time our social and political philosophies recognize this fact…

LORAIN, Ohio — It used to be called illegitimacy. Now it is the new normal. After steadily rising for five decades, the share of children born to unmarried women has crossed a threshold: more than half of births to American women under 30 occur outside marriage.

Once largely limited to poor women and minorities, motherhood without marriage has settled deeply into middle America. The fastest growth in the last two decades has occurred among white women in their 20s who have some college education but no four-year degree, according to Child Trends, a Washington research group that analyzed government data.

Among mothers of all ages, a majority — 59 percent in 2009 — are married when they have children. But the surge of births outside marriage among younger women — nearly two-thirds of children in the United States are born to mothers under 30 — is both a symbol of the transforming family and a hint of coming generational change.

One group still largely resists the trend: college graduates, who overwhelmingly marry before having children. That is turning family structure into a new class divide, with the economic and social rewards of marriage increasingly reserved for people with the most education.

via For Women Under 30, Most Births Occur Outside Marriage – NYTimes.com.

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The Latest Republican Hypocrite: Arizona Sheriff Rocked By Accusations Of Alleged Immigrant Ex-Boyfriend

And the latest Republican Hypocrite is:  Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu

Not only Gay, but publicly anti-immigrant and dating a male Mexican Immigrant….

They are just going to love this in Arizona!

I somehow think his Congressional campaign just ended…

From TalkingPointsMemo, click the link at the bottom for full story and pictures:

Rising Republican star and well-known border hawk Sheriff Paul Babeu, who’s now running for Congress in Arizona, was hit Friday night with bombshell accusations from a Mexican immigrant who said he dated the sheriff for years and was threatened with deportation if he ever told anyone about their romance.

The Phoenix New Times newspaper broke the story on its website in a piece written by veteran journalist Monica Alonzo. The accusations came complete with text messages said to be between the two men as well as compromising photos purportedly of Babeu that are reminiscent of recent sex scandals that ended the careers of Congressmen Anthony Weiner and Chris Lee.

In one photo, Babeu is seen posing in front of a mirror in nothing but his underwear. In another, he has his hand inside the man’s partially unbuttoned shirt.

The newspaper identified the accuser only by his first name, Jose, citing his fear that the sheriff would try to challenge his immigration status.

Jose said he met Babeu through the dating website gay.com in 2006, before he became sheriff, according to the newspaper. Babeu was a police officer in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler at the time and was elected as sheriff of Pinal County in late 2008.

Beyond the romance, the newspaper also said Jose volunteered for Babeu’s campaign, maintaining his websites and social media accounts.

They were apparently together during Babeu’s fast rise to becoming a national figure in the fight against illegal immigration. The sheriff first burst onto the national stage in 2010 when he appeared alongside Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) in a now-famous television ad, calling on the federal government to complete “the danged fence” along the US-Mexican border.

More recently, Babeu has been a frequent guest for Fox News for immigration-related topics, including the ongoing Fast and Furious scandal. He has endorsed Mitt Romney in the Republican presidential primary, and touted as a co-chair of the candidate’s presidential campaign in Arizona. He even recorded robocalls for Romney that went out to voters in Iowa last year.

via Arizona Sheriff Rocked By Accusations Of Alleged Immigrant Ex-Boyfriend | TPMMuckraker.

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Ex-congressman Virgil Goode Eyes Presidential Bid

Hasn’t he already embarrassed Virginia enough?

This man is seriously crazy- which is normal for Virginia Republicans…

Now it seems he is taking his crazy on the road…

Thank god, Goode finally lost his Congressional seat to the great Tom Perriello and we thought we were rid of him.  Unfortunately, Tom lost to that dim bulb Robert Hurt who currently occupies the VA 5th District seat and is, at least, a much quieter embarrassment than Goode.

Now, it seems, the national GOP just isn’t crazy enough for Virgil, so he’s going to try to make a comeback….

God, help us…

It will take at least a century for Virginia’s image to recover from this- especially if the current right-wing lunatic governor with really bad televangelist Republican hair ends up as the GOP VP nominee…

The good news, is there are a few people crazy enough to vote for Virgil Goode, at least in Southside Virginia, so he will at least pull a few dozen votes away from whoever the GOP nominates….

From The Washington Post:

Virgil H. Goode Jr. — the former Virginia congressman and state Senator who switched from Democrat to Independent to Republican during his time in office — is apparently interested in the nation’s top job. Goode filed papers with the Federal Election Commission last week to create the Virgil Goode for President Campaign Committee.

The form does not specify which party’s banner Goode will run under, but in 2010 he was named to the executive committee of the Constitution Party, and last year the party unanimously adopted a resolution calling on Goode to run for president. He said at the time he would “consider it.”

via Ex-congressman Virgil Goode eyes presidential bid – Virginia Politics – The Washington Post.

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Obama poised to win 2012 election with 303 Electoral Votes

And even more good news from Yahoo News!

Let’s have the Election today, before anything goes wrong…

I never under estimate the Democratic Party’s talent for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory by doing something incredibly stupid….

For reference, see the 2010 Elections and how they embraced deficit reduction instead of a larger economic stimulus, screwed up the messaging on the Economic collapse and blew the chance to launch a new New Deal….

With fewer than nine months to go before Election Day, The Signal predicts that Barack Obama will win the presidential contest with 303 electoral votes to the Republican nominee’s 235.

How do we know? We don’t, of course. Campaigns and candidates evolve, and elections are dynamic events with more variables than can reasonably be distilled in an equation. But the data–based on a prediction engine created by Yahoo! scientists–suggest a second term is likely for the current president. This model does not use polls or prediction markets to directly gauge what voters are thinking. Instead, it forecasts the results of the Electoral College based on past elections, economic indicators, measures of state ideology, presidential approval ratings, incumbency, and a few other politically agnostic factors.

via Obama poised to win 2012 election with 303 electoral votes: The Signal Forecast | The Signal – Yahoo! News.

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A New GOP Presidential Candidate Takes the Stage

They have apparently learned a lot during this endless, ridiculous Primary…

And, since none of their current Candidates seem feasible,  they have decided to put forth a new Candidate …

They just won’t tell you who it is…

They’ve learned that’s the only way he/she can survive the GOP Primary process, much less defeat President Obama….

From The Onion:

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Poll Finds Republicans in Deep Trouble

More good news from Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire….

By the time the Election rolls around, the GOP may have pissed off so many people that only the 1% votes for their candidate and even their loony base is too demoralized to turn out….

Their actions this week in the War on Women have certainly driven women back to the Democratic fold and fired up the Democratic Party Base….

Keep it up, GOP!!!

A new Democracy Corps (D) survey finds the Republican brand “is in a state of collapse — over 50 percent of voters give the Republican Party a cool, negative rating. The presidential race and the congressional battles are interacting with each other to drive down their lead candidate, the party, and perceptions of the congressional Republicans.”

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney “may be on the edge of political death. The shift against him is one of the biggest in the polls and he now competes with Republicans in Congress for unpopularity. In the summer of 1996, Bob Dole essentially was disqualified in voters’ eyes and never really recovered his footing.”

Most interesting: Voters who gave Democrats their victories in 2006 and 2008 “have returned in a big way” led by “a resurgence and re-engagement of unmarried women.”

via Poll Finds Republicans in Deep Trouble.

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The Electoral Wasteland: How the GOP Does Not Represent America

This is a great editorial in today’s New York Times….

I’ve been stunned to see how backwards the GOP has become-especially this week with it’s attacks on Women’s healthcare and reproductive rights….

All these old white men making decisions that impact a vast and diverse population they obviously don’t understand- or care to understand.

I keep thinking it’s a throwback to the 1950’s, but this article makes the point it’s more representative of an even older era- the 1890’s.

My question is why such a diverse country keeps voting these fools into office?

This article actually tries to answer that question…

We are in the 21st Century, but our elected officials don’t seem to realize that…..

In barely a century’s time, the population of the United States has more than tripled, to 313 million. We are a clattering, opinionated cluster of nearly all the world’s races and religions, and many of its languages, under one flag.

You would not know any of this looking at who is voting in one of the strangest presidential primary campaigns in history. There is no other way to put this without resorting to demographic bluntness: the small fraction of Americans who are trying to pick the Republican nominee are old, white, uniformly Christian and unrepresentative of the nation at large.

None of that is a surprise. But when you look at the numbers, it’s stunning how  little this Republican primary electorate resembles the rest of the United States.  They are much closer to the population of 1890 than of 2012.

via The Electoral Wasteland – NYTimes.com.

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