Category Archives: Politics

The Republican Jobs Plan: Florida Lawmaker Wants State to Reinstate Dwarf Tossing

You just can’t make this stuff up….

The GOP has no-zero- interest in job creation or income equality.

But they have plenty of time and interest in frivolous lawmaking, laws to favor their campaign contributors, trying to legislate morality, trying to oppress women, gays and immigrants and trying to extend employment opportunities for Dwarfs….

This is so frigging ridiculous, I just can’t say any more about it….

Talk amongst yourselves….

From Frank Cerabino in the Palm Beach Press:

Some news on the job-creation front in Florida.

A state legislator has found yet another example of government regulation getting in the way of job creation.

So Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, filed a bill this week to bring back “dwarf tossing,” the barbaric and dangerous barroom spectacle that was imported from Australia and thrived briefly in Florida before it was outlawed in 1989.

“I’m on a quest to seek and destroy unnecessary burdens on the freedom and liberties of people,” Workman said. “This is an example of Big Brother government.

“All that it does is prevent some dwarfs from getting jobs they would be happy to get,” Workman said. “In this economy, or any economy, why would we want to prevent people from getting gainful employment?”

via Cerabino: Lawmaker wants state to reinstate dwarf tossing.

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Sarah Palin Will Not Run for President – ABC News

Damn.

This would have been so much fun!  I was so looking forward to new Saturday Night Live sketches.

And she would have been the easiest Republican for President Obama to beat…

Oh, well….

I guess she decided she better stay out of the limelight so she can keep raking in the big bucks from gullible conservatives.

She must have learned a bright light shining on her is not a good thing for her credibility-as if she had any to begin with– or her marketability…..

ABC News’ Polson Kanneth reports:

Sarah Palin will not run for president.  She made the announcement in a letter to supporters Wednesday night.

Read Palin’s letter here:

October 5, 2011

Wasilla, Alaska

After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order.

My decision is based upon a review of what common sense Conservatives and Independents have accomplished, especially over the last year. I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office – from the nation’s governors to Congressional seats and the Presidency. We need to continue to actively and aggressively help those who will stop the “fundamental transformation” of our nation and instead seek the restoration of our greatness, our goodness and our constitutional republic based on the rule of law.

From the bottom of my heart I thank those who have supported me and defended my record throughout the years, and encouraged me to run for President. Know that by working together we can bring this country back – and as I’ve always said, one doesn’t need a title to help do it.

I will continue driving the discussion for freedom and free markets, including in the race for President where our candidates must embrace immediate action toward energy independence through domestic resource developments of conventional energy sources, along with renewables. We must reduce tax burdens and onerous regulations that kill American industry, and our candidates must always push to minimize government to strengthen the economy and allow the private sector to create jobs.

Those will be our priorities so Americans can be confident that a smaller, smarter government that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people can better serve this most exceptional nation.

In the coming weeks I will help coordinate strategies to assist in replacing the President, re-taking the Senate, and maintaining the House.

Thank you again for all your support. Let’s unite to restore this country!

God bless America.

– Sarah Palin

via Sarah Palin Will Not Run for President – ABC News.

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96-Year-Old Tennessee Woman Denied Voter ID

This is truly despicable….

I keep telling people, there is no “voter fraud” in the sense the GOP is citing for these Voter ID Laws.  This is all an attempt to disenfranchise legitimate voters-who generally vote against the GOP.

The Republican Party is the one really perpetrating Voter Fraud as they are trying to defraud people of the right to vote.

From ThinkProgress.org:

Swept up in the craze of preventing widespread voter fraud that doesn’t actually exist, Tennessee Republicans passed a voter identification law this year that they claimed would put an end to fraud and ensure fair elections. Like similar laws in other states, Tennessee’s version has come under scrutiny from voting rights advocates, civil rights groups like the NAACP and ACLU, and even Democratic senators, who oppose the laws because they will disenfranchise poor, elderly, and minority voters who are less likely to have photo IDs.

The state now has evidence that that will be the case. Dorothy Cooper, a 96-year-old Chattanooga resident who says she has voted in every election but one since she became eligible to vote, wanted to ensure she’d have the necessary ID to vote in next year’s elections, when Tennessee’s law goes into effect. But when she went to apply for the ID, she was denied, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports:

That morning, Cooper slipped a rent receipt, a copy of her lease, her voter registration card and her birth certificate into a Manila envelope. Typewritten on the birth certificate was her maiden name, Dorothy Alexander.

“But I didn’t have my marriage certificate,” Cooper said Tuesday afternoon, and that was the reason the clerk said she was denied a free voter ID at the Cherokee Boulevard Driver Service Center.

“I don’t know what difference it makes,” Cooper said.

Cooper doesn’t have a driver’s license — she never learned to drive — and has never needed identification to vote, and her lack of a valid marriage license is likely due to the fact that she’s outlived two husbands. Under the Tennessee law, Cooper will still be able to vote via absentee ballot, which does not require photo ID. But standing outside her normal voting precinct, Cooper told the Times Free Press she will miss going there to vote. “We always come here to vote,” Cooper said. “The people who run the polls know everybody here.”

via 96-Year-Old Tennessee Woman Denied Voter ID Because She Didn’t Have Her Marriage License | ThinkProgress.

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Dumb Alabama Immigration Law Working So Well Its Crops Are Rotting

Elections- and Laws- have consequences….

These Racist Tea Party Republicans better be careful what they ask for;  they just might get it….

They need to be aware of the consequences of putting their slogans into laws and actions….

But then, Alabama probably forgot slavery was now illegal and figured they would pick the cotton, er, tomatoes

These little facts keep getting missed by the home schoolers……

At least they still have Mississippi to make them look good….

From Wonkette.com:

Alabama is just the latest backwards state to legally codify its crusader witch hunt against the illegal immigrant wizards working their back-breaking field labor black magick on Alabama’s giant agriculture industry, but the state’s recently-enacted set of draconian worst-ever anti-immigrant laws are working a little too fast: zillions of Alabama tomatoes are rotting away in the fields this harvest season as undocumented immigrants flee like hell. Tomato farmers got together to protest these vicious dingus laws and make GOP state senator Scott Beason — the same creepy racist turd blossom who called African Americans “aborigines” — haul around one of the tomato buckets for five seconds to see how heavy they are. Beason felt he was too good for this and refused to pick it up, which is…hey, exactly like every other legal worker in Alabama!

The AP has the details of the Tomato Bucket Incident:

Tomato farmer Brian Cash said the migrant workers who would normally be on Chandler Mountain have gone to other states with less restrictive laws.

After talking with famers at the tomato shed, Beason visited the Smith family’s farm. Leroy Smith, Chad Smith’s father, challenged the senator to pick a bucket full of tomatoes and experience the labor-intensive work.

Beason declined but promised to see what could be done to help farmers while still trying to keep illegal immigrants out of Alabama.

Smith threw down the bucket he offered Beason and said, “There, I figured it would be like that.”

Oh well, at least Alabama and Scott Beason got to make their Important Point, about being dicks. [AP]

via Dumb Alabama Immigration Law Working So Well Its Crops Are Rotting.

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White House on Occupy Wall Street: `We understand’ – The Washington Post

The fact that the mainstream media is finally paying attention and that the White House is having to address this is a really, really big change….

This movement is getting too big to ignore- which is a very good thing!

I knew there was an Anit-Tea Party alternative out there and it looks like the sleeping giant has awakened….

From Greg Sargent in the Washington Post:

The story here is not what the White House said but that it was asked to weigh in on the protests at all — another sign of the remarkable speed with which it has grown from a crowd chanting at police two weeks ago. As for the substance of the White House response, it would have been a mistake for it to go any further than it did here — registering an understanding of economic frustration. Because if there’s one thing that’s growing clearer by the hour, it’s that this is an entirely organic effort, one that’s about nobody but the protesors themselves. In this sense, we’re seeing a replay of the Wisconsin protests. Those ended up falling just short of what activists had hoped to achieve, but their months-long showing was still important — it demonstrated that left wing populism is still alive and well and sent an important message about the mood of the country. The key was that it grew organically with little to no involvement from Beltway Dems and the White House.

If anything, Occupy Wall Street’s lack of outside encouragement from bigfoot Dems has been a strength, rather than a weakness. As major progressive groups debate how they can contribute to strengthening the movement — and how to give it specific direction and a specific agenda — the need to preserve its grassroots nature will remain paramount. Who knows where this will end up, but for now, this is another reminder that the Tea Party isn’t the only voice of popular discontentment over the economy. We don’t necessarily live in Tea Party Nation, after all.

More: White House on Occupy Wall Street: `We understand’ – The Plum Line – The Washington Post.

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Bill Maher: On Being Over 50

Very nice article from Bill Maher over on Huffington Post about being over 50….

God, I hope he’s not getting soft in his old age….

We need his feisty outrage too much….

The thing about your fifties is, you’re not nearly over (if you’re lucky) — in fact, lots of ambitious people are peaking — but it is the first time in your life that you can see over the crest of the mountain and down into the Valley below — you know, Death. Death is the monster we all fear, yet with each day, we walk toward it, and can’t help doing so; we can’t help but walk toward the one thing we’re most trying to avoid.

Little things remind you of this all the time — like minor cuts taking longer to heal than they used to. It doesn’t cause you any health problems, but it reminds you your body is not replacing cells as fast as it used to, and the ones it is sending are inferior copies of their predecessors. That’s why we age, and look progressively worse as the years pass: just like a photocopy or a video tape that looks slightly worse each time its copied, we are constantly copying ourselves and coming out a little inferior every time. Merry Christmas.

However… the one thing that does seem to get better, at least so far, is the brain — you know, so you can be more aware of the depressing physical part! But hey, the depressing physical part also gives you an urgency to life that is really quite irreplaceable. When you’re young, you don’t appreciate! And learning to appreciate life is almost better than being young and ignoring it.

At least that’s my story, and I’m sticking with it.

MORE:   Bill Maher: On Being Over 50.

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Fox News Meets Their Match at Occupy Wall Street

The guy in this video is great!

Of course, this never aired on Fox News….He’s too good at challenging them and calling them out….

I hope we see and hear more from this guy…

 

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Restrictions Could Keep Five Million Traditionally Democratic Voters From The Polls In 2012

This is why the GOP is pushing all these new “voter” initiatives in so many states.

It’s a coordinated effort  to deny people the right to vote.

Republicans know they only win as long as turnout is low.  They also know the demographic trends are against them.  Therefore, their goal is to drive down turnout and find ways to disenfranchise groups of people who traditionally vote Democratic.

I’m afraid we’ll only see more of these efforts to steal elections.  The GOP is the real driver of voter fraud– defrauding people of the right to vote….

 

Restrictive voting laws in states across the country could affect up to five million voters from traditionally Democratic demographics in 2012, according to a new report by the Brennan Center. That’s a number larger than the margin of victory in two of the last three presidential elections.

The new restrictions, the study found, “fall most heavily on young, minority, and low-income voters, as well as on voters with disabilities. This wave of changes may sharply tilt the political terrain for the 2012 election.”

The study found that:

These new laws could make it significantly harder for more than five million eligible voters to cast ballots in 2012.

The states that have already cut back on voting rights will provide 171 electoral votes in 2012 – 63 percent of the 270 needed to win the presidency.

Of the 12 likely battleground states, as assessed by an August Los Angeles Times analysis of Gallup polling, five have already cut back on voting rights (and may pass additional restrictive legislation), and two more are currently considering new restrictions.

The total number, according to the Brennan Center, is the sum of the 3.2 million voters they estimate will be affected by new photo ID laws, “the 240,000 citizens and potential voters who could be affected by new proof of citizenship laws, 202,000 voters registered in 2008 through voter registration drives that have now been made extremely difficult or impossible under new laws, 60,000 voters registered in 2008 through Election Day voter registration where it has now been repealed, one to two million voters who voted in 2008 on days eliminated under new laws rolling back early voting and at least 100,000 disenfranchised citizens who might have regained voting rights by 2012.”

“These voting law changes are radical and completely unnecessary,” Wendy. R. Weiser, a co-author of the report, said in a statement. “They especially hurt those who have been historically locked out of our electoral system, like minorities, poor people, and students. Often they seem precisely targeted to exclude certain voters.”

via Restrictions Could Keep Five Million Traditionally Democratic Voters From The Polls In 2012 | TPMMuckraker.

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Art Pope, Citizens United, and North Carolina Politics : The New Yorker

Very scary article in this weeks “New Yorker” about Art Pope and how he’s used his money to effect North Carolina politics….

The “Citizens United” decision by the Supreme Court last year is really hurting Democracy in America.  We are only just now starting to see how much….

Here is a brief excerpt from a very long article.  I encourage you to click the link and read it in it’s entirety.

For years, Pope, like several other farsighted conservative corporate activists, has been spending millions in an attempt to change the direction of American politics. According to an analysis of tax records by Democracy NC, a progressive government watchdog group, in the past decade Pope, his family, his family foundation, and his business have spent more than forty million dollars in this effort. Sizable as Pope’s contributions have been, they are negligible in comparison with his fortune. The Pope family foundation—of which Art Pope is the chairman and president, and one of four directors—reportedly has assets of nearly a hundred and fifty million dollars.

This wealth has enabled Pope to participate in the public arena on a scale that few individuals can match. Some have compared him to Charles and David Koch, the conservative oil-and-chemical magnates, whom Pope regards as friends; Pope has at times joined forces with them, attending some of their semi-annual secret planning summits and, through the family foundation, contributing millions to many of the same causes. Pope, in addition to being on the board of Americans for Prosperity—which David Koch founded, in 2004—served on the board of its predecessor, Citizens for a Sound Economy, which Koch co-founded, in 1984. Charles Koch recently praised the Popes, along with other donors, for providing financial support for the 2012 election effort, and tax records show that Pope has given money to at least twenty-seven groups supported by the Kochs, including organizations opposing environmental regulations, tax increases, unions, and campaign-spending limits. Pope, in fact, helped fund the legal center run by James Bopp, the lawyer who made the initial filing in the Citizens United case

More:   Art Pope, Citizens United, and North Carolina Politics : The New Yorker.

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We Are the 99 Per Cent – Mark Ruffalo

Wonderful article from actor/activist Mark Ruffalo in today’s Guardian in the UK.

As my friend Linda and many others have noted, this is getting much more press in the British press and overseas than it is here.

I’m sure that has nothing to do with the fact the mainstream American media is now mostly owned by large corporate conglomerates….

Yeah, right….

Here is a brief excerpt and a link to the full column:

It is a thing of beauty to see so many people in love with the ideal of democracy, so alive with its promise, so committed to its continuity in the face of crony capitalism and corporate rule. That should be celebrated. It should be respected and admired.

Their message is very clear and simple: get money out of the political process; strive for equality in taxation and equal rights for all regardless of race, gender, social status, sexual preference or age. We must stop poisoning our food, air and water for corporate greed. The people on Wall Street and in the banking industrial complex that destroyed our economy must be investigated and brought to justice under the law for what they have done by stealing people’s homes and savings.

Jobs can and must be created. Family farms must be saved. The oil and gas industry must be divested of its political power and cheap, reliable alternative energy must be made available.

This movement transcends political affiliations. America has been debased and degraded by greed. This has touched 99% of America’s population. The other 1% is doing just fine – with more than a third of the wealth of this nation. We all know people who have been hurt by the big rip-off. We all know people who have lost their jobs or their homes. We all know people who have had to go and fight wars that seem to have no objective and no end – leaving families for years on end without fathers, mothers, sons and daughters.

More: We are the 99 per cent | Mark Ruffalo | Comment is free | The Guardian.

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