Category Archives: Politics

March 22, 2013 · 12:05 pm

Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum Nearly Agreed To Form 2012 ‘Unity Ticket:’

Oh, this would have been fun!

Only the GOP could view this as a “Unity Ticket”….

It would have unified the country alright- against their ticket and given President Obama a real landslide….

From Bloomberg BusinessWeek via Huffington Post:

Pegged as an early frontrunner for the GOP’s 2012 presidential nomination, the Republican primary results were showing a different picture. Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) claimed the Iowa caucus and a clean sweep of three Feb. 7 contests. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) snagged the conservative foothold of South Carolina on Jan. 21, sparking questions of whether Romney was capable of inspiring the party to victory against President Barack Obama.

A Friday Bloomberg Businessweek report reveals that things could have been worse. Santorum and Gingrich were close to forming a “Unity Ticket,” aimed at knocking Romney out.

Santorum’s stock surged after that February 2012 rally, to a point where there was talk he could capture Romney’s home state of Michigan. According to the Businessweek report, that’s when the “Unity Ticket” discussion reached its peak. But negotiations collapsed just before Michigan’s Feb. 28 primary.

“Everybody thought there was an opportunity,” John Brabender, Santorum’s chief strategist, told Businessweek. “It would have sent shock waves through the establishment and the Romney campaign.”

At the heart of the Gingrich-Santorum breakdown was a battle over who would be the eventual presidential candidate. Based on what Gingrich told Businessweek, it appeared to be a deal-breaking factor.

“In the end, it was just too hard to negotiate,” Gingrich said.

MORE:  Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum Nearly Agreed To Form 2012 ‘Unity Ticket:’ Bloomberg Businessweek.

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February 27, 2013 · 9:15 pm

Fight the Good Fight: A Message from Robert Reich

Great message today on Facebook from former Labor Secretary and all around brilliant man Robert Reich…

Sometimes politics and politicians just seem too ridiculous to take seriously.  That’s one of the reasons I slowed down on blogging for a few months.  I had to take a break from the foolishness.

But I realized we all have to stay engaged and stay in the game.  The Conservatives, the Rich, the 1% , the crazy Evangelical fringe, the haters, the Gun Nuts and the neanderthal’s certainly will.  They aren’t going away- well, at least until they die out….

With the Supreme Court on the verge of throwing out section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, the Republicans are going to do even more to gerrymander their way into keeping power and finding ways to suppress the vote.

I hope all my Progressive friends and readers will read this message from Secretary Reich and keep it in mind:

In light of the standoff in Washington — and the continuing dysfunction in our nation’s capital — many of you are angry and frustrated. Some of you say you’ve had it with politics. Others feel powerless and hopeless. A number blame both parties, seeing Democrats as no different from Republicans.

All these reactions are exactly what the regressives want. This is the heart of their strategy. They want you to see all of politics and all politicians as crooks and con-artists, fools or knaves. They want you to give up. That way, they can have it all. They can turn the clock back on America. They can shred every safety net, eviscerate every regulation, prevent any investment in the health and education of future generations. They can hammer the poor and middle class with lower wages, fewer jobs, and less security, and create a plutocracy of the privileged and powerful. Get it? They want you out of the way so they have America to themselves. The showdowns and standoffs and gridlock in Washington are part of their plot.

We must not let them. The progressive forces in this country are stronger than the regressive ones, but only if we are united and determined. Don’t stop making a ruckus. Don’t stop writing and calling your representatives. Don’t stop mobilizing others, and organizing at the grass roots. 2014 will be a key election year. We must take our democracy back.

via Robert Reich.

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February 26, 2013 · 11:13 pm

What Researchers Learned About Gun Violence Before Congress Killed Funding

Facts are so inconvenient for some folks….

Some very interesting information from RawStory.com that shows how the NRA, among other interests groups, tries to stop scientific studies that might go against their interests.

And this shows just how explosive facts might be….

But the Right Wing will do all it can to suppress or ignore the facts….

So, they figure it’s best just not to have any….

Saves them so much time and effort to kill or misrepresent them or convince people to ignore them…

President Obama has directed the Centers for Disease Control to research gun violence as part of his legislative package on gun control. The CDC hasn’t pursued this kind of research since 1996 when the National Rifle Association lobbied Congress to cut funding for it, arguing that the studies were politicized and being used to promote gun control. We’ve interviewed Dr. Mark Rosenberg, who led the agency’s gun violence research in the nineties when he was the director of the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

_______________________________________________

One of the critical studies that we supported was looking at the question of whether having a firearm in your home protects you or puts you at increased risk. This was a very important question because people who want to sell more guns say that having a gun in your home is the way to protect your family.

What the research showed was not only did having a firearm in your home not protect you, but it hugely increased the risk that someone in your family would die from a firearm homicide. It increased the risk almost 300 percent, almost three times as high.

It also showed that the risk that someone in your home would commit suicide went up. It went up five-fold if you had a gun in the home. These are huge, huge risks, and to just put that in perspective, we look at a risk that someone might get a heart attack or that they might get a certain type of cancer, and if that risk might be 20 percent greater, that may be enough to ban a certain drug or a certain product.

But in this case, we’re talking about a risk not 20 percent, not 100 percent, not 200 percent, but almost 300 percent or 500 percent. These are huge, huge risks.

MORE:   What researchers learned about gun violence before Congress killed funding | The Raw Story.

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February 19, 2013 · 7:30 pm

North Carolina Slashes Jobless Benefits

Amazing….

Amazingly heartless, amazingly stupid and amazingly bad public policy….

I just can’t believe the People of North Carolina really want this…..even most of the ones who voted for these idiots.

But, of course, the GOP only cares about Corporations and Corporate welfare. They are the only “people” who matter to the Republicans.

Laura Clawson at DailyKos.com says it best:

Surprising no one, but brutalizing hundreds of thousands of people, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, signed major unemployment insurance cuts into law Tuesday. Under the new law, the maximum unemployment benefit is cut from $535 to $350, and the maximum weeks of eligibility are cut from 26 to 20, which cuts jobless North Carolinians off from the federal emergency unemployment compensation program.

The cutoff from federal benefits alone affects 170,000 people; overall, there are 400,000 unemployed North Carolinians.

The kicker is that this was done to protect businesses from having to pay higher unemployment taxes. But a big part of the reason it needed to be done was that North Carolina went into the recession with an underfunded unemployment insurance trust fund because of cuts to employer unemployment taxes. Now, with an unemployment rate of 9.2 percent, the fifth-highest in the country, the state is cutting the benefits that jobless people use to buy groceries and pay the rent and put gas in their cars to go to any job interviews they may be lucky enough to get.

Republican governance, y’all.

via Daily Kos: North Carolina slashes jobless benefits despite 9.2% unemployment.

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February 8, 2013 · 2:28 pm

Hacker Reveals George W. Bush’s Naked Self-Portraits

Now, who wants to see this crap?

Although it is interesting that “W” has this “artistic” side….

I just wonder if he was standing naked over the picture of the Church.  That part is not clear….

And who was he sending them to?

The mind reels…

Excerpt from and link to full story on RawStory.com:

Photos included in an information dump turned over to The Smoking Gun include President George H.W. Bush in the hospital, the elder Bush posing with President Bill Clinton, a family photo of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and even President George W. Bush posing with a cardboard cutout of himself wearing a mustache and beret.

Three of the images also show paintings Bush created, including one of himself in the shower, another of himself in a bath, and a third of him crouched over a canvas depicting a church.

A hacker going by the name “Guccifer” claimed the stolen messages include addresses, phone numbers and email addresses that go directly to both former presidents and their families, along with a security code for a gate outside the younger Bush’s home in Dallas.

via Hacker reveals George W. Bush’s naked self-portraits | The Raw Story.

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February 7, 2013 · 9:10 pm

Howard Fineman: Karl Rove Is Done

From Howard’s mouth to God’s ear….

We can only hope his predictions are true.

This is a really fascinating article on the rise and, hopefully, fall of Karl Rove and the current far-right, Tea Party infused Republican Party.  It offers a great historical perspective.

Here is a brief excerpt and a link, which I encourage you to follow, to the full story by Howard Fineman at the Huffington Post:

The party of Paul, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Gov. Rick Scott of Florida and many others is a throwback to the nativism and principled know-nothing-ism of conservatives whom the likes of William F. Buckley and Ronald Reagan purged from the party long ago, making it safe for the Roves of the world to advance.

It took the likes of Buckley and Reagan two decades to rid the GOP and the mainstream conservative movement of the John Birchers, ultra-isolationists and flat-out segregationists and to create a party and a platform that would win a national election.

Now leaders and potential leaders such as Cruz (a rising force to be reckoned with) and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida need to perform the same cleansing task — and will probably have to take on the Paulites (who are paranoid conspiracy theorists at heart) to do it.

The war for the soul of the Republican Party is real, deep and reminiscent of that earlier conflict. For the GOP it ended well: they harnessed the energy at the grassroots to take over Washington.

This equally bitter GOP civil war may end in the party’s revival, too. But it won’t be Rove, or one of his clients, who is able to end it.

He’s done.

via Howard Fineman: Karl Rove Is Done.

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February 7, 2013 · 7:46 pm

Gun Issue May Drive Women To 2014 Polls

Off-year elections are always terribly problematic for Democrats.  The Republican base of crazies and old, rich white people always shows up at the polls.  The Democratic constituency doesn’t.

That’s how we got stuck with the Republican House and how the GOP took over so many state legislature and thus gerrymandered the Congressional districts to protect the GOP House.  And how so many crazy Republican Governors got elected in 2010….

The Democrats have to find issues that will drive their voters to the polls in these off-year elections.  Gun control may be one of them.  We just have to break through the DC Bubble about Guns and their fear of the NRA.

All the polls say the public widely supports additional gun controls like background checks, banning assault weapons and high volume magazines.  We just have to get the Dems to believe this and come up with a credible and effective messaging process.

That’s always the biggest challenge:   The Democrats just don’t know how to message and make the most of issues that drive their supporters to the polls.

But they may be starting to learn…

From TalkingPointsMemo.com:

 

Women who don’t usually vote in midterm elections — the same women who generally drive Democratic victories — will turn out in 2014 over the issue of guns, according to a recent poll.

The survey released by Women Donors Network, a self-described progressive “community of women philanthropists,” found that a subset of women voters who usually don’t vote in midterm elections are more likely to vote in 2014 on the issue of gun violence.

That echoes what former Rep. Steve LaTourette (OH), now a militant moderate leader in the Republican Party, said on Tuesday when he cautioned his party against sticking too close to the National Rifle Association in the post-Newtown legislative push to reduce gun violence. If the GOP is seen as being in the pocket of the NRA, he said, it could cost the party big with women in future elections.

The survey, which was conducted by Democratic pollster Diane Feldman and Republican pollster Bob Carpenter using live phone calls to 1,500 women, found that “women who may not ordinarily vote in a non-presidential year are among those most engaged with issues of gun violence.” The group also posted a PDF slide deck presenting the poll’s findings.

Feldman explained in an interview with TPM on Wednesday the results mean guns could be good politics for Democrats.

“As we approach the 2014 congressional elections, the question will be to what degree do single women, lower income women, persons of color participate since that’s the Democratic edge,” she said. “And this is an issue that can encourage them to participate.”

MORE:   Gun Issue May Drive Women To 2014 Polls | TPMDC.

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February 7, 2013 · 7:08 pm

North Carolina Unemployment Bill Would Lose State $600 Million In Federal Benefits

Things just keep getting worse and worse under the McCory administration….

This is not just morally wrong, it’s stupid.

Democrats have to do a better job of making people aware of the real Republican agenda.  I can’t help but think if people really knew what these guys were up to, they wouldn’t vote for them.  The GOP is dependent on smoke and mirrors to hide their insensitivity and true plans.

I have to blame the Dems for letting them get away with this….

I keep saying, if the NC Democrats knew how to run a political campaign, we would not have to suffer under these heartless, wrong-headed Republicans.

I can only hope the NC Democrats realize this and are going to get their act together before too many people and wonderful institutions are hurt or destroyed by the GOP legislature and the GOP Governor.

From Huffingtonpost.com:

 

North Carolina lawmakers are considering a bill that would slash unemployment benefits and cause the state to lose roughly $600 million worth of extended jobless compensation paid entirely by the federal government.

The measure would reduce the maximum weekly benefit from $530 to $350 per person. If it passes, North Carolina workers will no longer receive long-term compensation starting in July, since states cannot remain eligible for federal unemployment insurance if local lawmakers cut weekly benefit amounts. An estimated 80,000 people would miss out on federal extended benefits, according to the North Carolina Justice Center, a worker advocacy nonprofit. At $25 million per week, the total loss over time amounts to more than $600 million.

Policy experts said the move would be unprecedented. “It is pretty amazing,” the center’s Alexandra Sirota said in an interview. “As far as we know, no other state has rejected federal dollars to push that level of benefit cuts.”

More:   North Carolina Unemployment Bill Would Lose State $600 Million In Federal Benefits.

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February 5, 2013 · 8:10 pm

Dems Move to Change Federal Pot Laws

I’ve seen some comments on Facebook and blogs from my old hometown in Virginia- formerly big tobacco country and now heavily Republican territory- pushing for legalization of Marijuana and Hemp to replace the economic void left by the collapse of the tobacco market.

They seem to think growing and selling Marijuana and hemp could replace tobacco and bring back the prosperity of the old economy with a new twist.  And they also seem to think they could reopen what’s left of the cotton mills to mill hemp and make hemp products.

And they are mostly Republicans there now…

Makes you question their grasp of reality…

It’s also amazing how fast their “moral” qualms about Marijuana and hemp go away at the prospect of a new cash crop..

Still….

This is getting interesting….

From Salon.com:

SEATTLE (AP) — An effort is building in Congress to change U.S. marijuana laws, including moves to legalize the industrial production of hemp and establish a hefty federal pot tax.

While passage this year could be a longshot, lawmakers from both parties have been quietly working on several bills, the first of which Democratic Reps. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and Jared Polis of Colorado plan to introduce Tuesday, Blumenauer told The Associated Press.

Polis’ measure would regulate marijuana the way the federal government handles alcohol: In states that legalize pot, growers would have to obtain a federal permit. Oversight of marijuana would be removed from the Drug Enforcement Administration and given to the newly renamed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Marijuana and Firearms, and it would remain illegal to bring marijuana from a state where it’s legal to one where it isn’t.

The bill is based on a legalization measure previously pushed by former Reps. Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Ron Paul of Texas.

via Dems move to change federal pot laws – Salon.com.

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February 4, 2013 · 8:25 pm

Hillary Clinton in 2016: Be Afraid, Republicans

Run, Hillary, Run!

With early numbers like I’m seeing, she could have the longest coattails of any recent candidate.  And with the Republican gerrymandering, it’s going to take a lot of long coattails to win back the house.

It would also be so, so gratifying to see the GOP Southern Strategy, that they have used since Nixon,  finally collapse.  A Democrat winning Texas and Kentucky?  Still a long shot, but oh so sweet a possibility….

 

From the Daily Beast”

 

Message to the Republican Party: be afraid, be very afraid.

Hillary Clinton stands atop of the Democratic 2016 scrum, set to resume where Bill left off. A second Clinton candidacy would likely put the white vote in play and jeopardize the GOP’s dominance in the Old Confederacy. Recent polls put Hillary ahead of possible Republican challengers in vote-rich Texas and in Kentucky, home of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Tea Party favorite Rand Paul.

Unlike her husband, Hillary is personally disciplined. Unlike Barack Obama, she has demonstrated an ability to connect with beer-track voters across the country.

More:   Hillary Clinton in 2016: Be Afraid, Republicans – The Daily Beast.

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