Category Archives: Politics

February 9, 2011 · 6:55 pm

AMERICAblog News: Bristol Palin’s ‘memoir’ comes out this summer? FOX’s discusses future ‘President Bristol’

I’ll post without comment…

John at Americablog.com says it all….

Pity a political party that embraces the Palins as a dynasty. The TV show ‘Dynasty,’ perhaps. But the ongoing hagiography of this trashy family doesn’t speak well to the future of the Republican party. What are the party’s hopes and dreams? Where does it want to see the country head in the future? And does anyone seriously believe Sarah and Bristol are going to take us there?

Yes, so Bristol, the one who got pregnant (though let’s not forgot that Bristol’s family-values mom has never explained why her first child was reportedly born eight months after she got married), is reportedly going to be publishing her memoirs this summer at the ripe age of 20. Oh, you hadn’t hear about Palin’s first pregnancy? This is from the NYT during the campaign, it was overlooked by most everyone:

The Palins eloped on Aug. 29, 1988, and their first son, Track, was born eight months later, a fact that Maria Comella of the McCain campaign, declined to elaborate on. “They were high school sweethearts who got married and ended up having five beautiful children together,” Ms. Comella said.

Yeah, not a denial at all. And these are family values religious right folk we’re talking about. If the baby were simply born early, wouldn’t we have been told the baby was simply born early? Would the McCain campaign really want this hanging over their heads if there was a simple non-controversial explanation? It matters because people like Palin would be the first to criticize the values of a Democratic White House contender who got pregnant out of wedlock.

Not to be topped, via Media Matters we learn that FOX is now talking about whether Bristol is going to be President.

More:   AMERICAblog News: Bristol Palin’s ‘memoir’ comes out this summer? FOX’s discusses future ‘President Bristol’.

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February 8, 2011 · 8:03 pm

Glenn Beck: Should Fox Toss Him Out of the Coop?

If only….

I keep hoping people will get wise to him or he would self-destruct, but I never thought it would be over something like the Egyptian protests..

From David Corn at AOL Politics Daily:

For years, Beck has pitched various conspiracy theories with a rather predictable thrust: The left is out to take over and/or destroy the United States. (The relationship between assuming control of the country and scheming its decimation has always been a bit fuzzy.) And his targets have been sinister lefty outfits that are not household names: the Tides Foundation, ACORN, and others. As long as Beck stuck to this classic tale — secret commies undermining this great land of ours — he wasn’t much of a problem to most conservatives and his patrons at Fox. Sure, some conservative commentators (such as David Frum) derided Beck. But Beck was more like the crazy uncle in the attic who could be ignored. And Fox News could bank the revenue Beck generated without worry. Good ratings forgive much.

But only so much.

The Egypt uprising has raised the stakes for Beck — and Fox. In the past two weeks, Beck has viewed events in Egypt through his own rather warped filter. He claims that the rebellion is not about the people, not about democracy. Instead, he says, it’s a move by radical Islamists to take over Egypt, as part of a larger plan to install a caliphate that stretches from the Middle East through Europe and toward the United States. And he contends that “uber-leftists” and Islamic extremists are “plotting together” toward this end. Last week on his radio show, he declared, “Groups from the hard-core socialist and communist left and extreme Islam will work together because they are both a common enemy of Israel and the Jew. . . . Islam wants a caliphate. Communists want a communist new world order. They’ll work together, and they’ll destabilize. Because they both want chaos.”

Austin Powers, anyone? But it gets better. This grand cabal also includes . . . the Establishment. Beck points out that Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush refrained from bombing “ancient Babylon” during their respective wars against Iraq. “Why?” he asks. “Because the Bible tells us that that is the seat right there of power of a global evil empire,” meaning that Islamic caliphate. Bush father and son each wanted to preserve the heart of a radical Islam caliphate? That seems to be what Beck is saying.

via Glenn Beck: Should Fox Toss Him Out of the Coop?.

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Filed under History, Media, Politics, Television

February 8, 2011 · 7:31 pm

The Real Reagan – Salon.com

I’m continuing my information campaign to prevent the canonization of St Ronnie of Beverly Hills…

I’m just trying to do my little bit to share the truth the Corporate Media wants to ignore…

From Salon.com

By 1992, three years after he left the White House, Ronald Reagan was anything but a beloved former president. As a painful recession gripped the country, the public came to see the Reagan years — which featured a massive defense buildup, soaring deficits and even a stock market crash in 1987 — as the source of their economic woes. Running for president that year, Bill Clinton promised to enact a clean break from the “failed policies of Reagan and Bush.” As Reagan prepared to speak at the Republican National Convention in August, a Gallup poll found that just 46 percent of Americans had a favorable view of him. By contrast, Jimmy Carter, the man Reagan had defeated in a 44-state rout in 1980, was viewed favorably by 63 percent of the American public. The Reagan presidency stood in something approaching disrepute.

Today, though, you’d never know any of this happened. In the two decades since it bottomed out, Reagan’s image has been resurrected, thanks largely to a relentless campaign from conservative activists. Will Bunch, who writes for the Philadelphia Daily News and is a senior fellow at Media Matters, chronicled Reagan’s image makeover — and the reality of his record as president — in his 2008 book “Tear Down This Myth.” We spoke with him recently about how the myth of Reagan has taken hold, and whether there’s any truth to it.

More:   The Real Reagan – Salon.com.

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February 8, 2011 · 7:29 pm

4 Things Our Government Should Stop Wasting Money On | | AlterNet

Interesting article…if everyone is going to focus on cutting spending during a shakey economic recovery- not the brightest thing to do- they should at least focus on the right places to cut…

A Tea Party-infused GOP is calling for major cuts to federal spending. But for most Republicans, the newfound concern with deficits is demonstrably cynical. Just look at the deafening silence from the Right that greeted the $1.2 trillion (and growing) deficit that President Bush ran up. Conservative fearmongering is mostly an excuse to plunder the safety net. “The idea that somehow we’re going to be Greece is just flat out silly,” says Dean Baker, an economist at the Center for Economic Policy Research. “Basically, it’s a cheap scare tactic to force austerity.”

Though catastrophic prophesies of a government gone bankrupt are paper tigers, there are still plenty of things progressives would like to see cut: a sprawling defense budget that funds two wars and hundreds of military bases world-wide; a criminal justice system that spends billions to lock up millions of (too often black) Americans; and corporate welfare in the form of subsidies for oil and gas companies, and for industrial agriculture. Harmful government spending is a much bigger problem than wasteful government spending. Positive social spending is all too scarce, and constantly under pressure.

via 4 Things Our Government Should Stop Wasting Money On | | AlterNet.

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Filed under Politics, Tea Party, The Economy

February 8, 2011 · 8:16 am

Everyday Brits Are in Revolt Against Wealthy Tax Cheats — Can We Do That Here?

If only….

From AlterNet…

Instead of the fake populism of the Tea Party, there is a movement based on real populism. It shows that there is an alternative to making the poor and the middle class pay for a crisis caused by the rich. It shifts the national conversation. Instead of letting the government cut our services and increase our taxes, the people demand that it cut the endless and lavish aid for the rich and make them pay the massive sums they dodge in taxes.

This may sound like a fantasy—but it has all happened. The name of this parallel universe is Britain. As recently as this past fall, people here were asking the same questions liberal Americans have been glumly contemplating: Why is everyone being so passive? Why are we letting ourselves be ripped off? Why are people staying in their homes watching their flat-screens while our politicians strip away services so they can fatten the superrich even more?

And then twelve ordinary citizens—a nurse, a firefighter, a student, a TV researcher and others—met in a pub in London one night and realized they were asking the wrong questions. “We had spent all this energy asking why it wasn’t happening,” says Tom Philips, a 23-year-old nurse who was there that night, “and then we suddenly said, That’s what everybody else is saying too. Why don’t we just do it? Why don’t we just start? If we do it, maybe everybody will stop asking why it isn’t happening and join in. It’s a bit like that Kevin Costner film Field of Dreams. We thought, If you build it, they will come.”

via Vision: Everyday Brits Are in Revolt Against Wealthy Tax Cheats — Can We Do That Here? | Tea Party and the Right | AlterNet.

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February 7, 2011 · 8:26 pm

10 Things Conservatives Don’t Want You To Know About Ronald Reagan

A little more on the truth about the Reagan Presidency….

How soon people forget and how easily their memories are manipulated by the Corporate Media….

From ThinkProgress.org

ThinkProgress has compiled a list of the top 10 things conservatives rarely mention when talking about President Reagan:

1. Reagan was a serial tax raiser. As governor of California, Reagan “signed into law the largest tax increase in the history of any state up till then.” Meanwhile, state spending nearly doubled. As president, Reagan “raised taxes in seven of his eight years in office,” including four times in just two years. As former GOP Senator Alan Simpson, who called Reagan “a dear friend,” told NPR, “Ronald Reagan raised taxes 11 times in his administration — I was there.” “Reagan was never afraid to raise taxes,” said historian Douglas Brinkley, who edited Reagan’s memoir. Reagan the anti-tax zealot is “false mythology,” Brinkley said.

2. Reagan nearly tripled the federal budget deficit. During the Reagan years, the debt increased to nearly $3 trillion, “roughly three times as much as the first 80 years of the century had done altogether.” Reagan enacted a major tax cut his first year in office and government revenue dropped off precipitously. Despite the conservative myth that tax cuts somehow increase revenue, the government went deeper into debt and Reagan had to raise taxes just a year after he enacted his tax cut. Despite ten more tax hikes on everything from gasoline to corporate income, Reagan was never able to get the deficit under control.

3. Unemployment soared after Reagan’s 1981 tax cuts. Unemployment jumped to 10.8 percent after Reagan enacted his much-touted tax cut, and it took years for the rate to get back down to its previous level. Meanwhile, income inequality exploded. Despite the myth that Reagan presided over an era of unmatched economic boom for all Americans, Reagan disproportionately taxed the poor and middle class, but the economic growth of the 1980′s did little help them. “Since 1980, median household income has risen only 30 percent, adjusted for inflation, while average incomes at the top have tripled or quadrupled,” the New York Times’ David Leonhardt noted.

4. Reagan grew the size of the federal government tremendously.

MORE:   ThinkProgress » Blog Archive » 10 Things Conservatives Don’t Want You To Know About Ronald Reagan.

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February 7, 2011 · 8:18 pm

Daily Kos: States that spent stimulus on repairs and public transportation created more jobs than other states

And there are still some people who say the stimulus didn’t work…

I keep saying it:  Infrastructure spending= more jobs= more tax revenue= more spending and product demands

Despite evidence showing that spending on public transportation and road and bridge repairs produces far more jobs and does so faster than new construction, most states and Metropolitan Planning Organizations “squandered” their federal stimulus money in this regard. Overall, according to a report from Smart Growth America, they spent 1.7 percent of the $26.6 billion they received from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed two years ago on public transportation, where expenditures generate the most jobs. At the same time, they spent 33.5 percent on new construction, which produces the least number of jobs.

SGA found that every $1 billion spent on highway projects yielded 2.4 million job hours; every $1 billion spent on public transportation projects yielded 4.2 million job hours.

Specifically, the report states, public transportation and bridge and road repairs created 31 percent more jobs per dollar than new construction of roads and bridges, while repair work on roads and bridges generated 16 percent more per dollar than new construction. Fixing existing infrastructure generates a higher investment return than new construction because it “prevents the need for reconstruction later, which costs 4 to 14 times as much … [and] keeps existing communities vibrant. Neglecting existing places whil building new infrastructure drives growth out and means the public ends up buying two of everything.” One reason that new construction generates fewer jobs per dollar is that so much of such dollars are spent on acquiring real estate, which produces no jobs.

via Daily Kos: States that spent stimulus on repairs and public transportation created more jobs than other states.

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Filed under Politics, The Economy

February 7, 2011 · 8:13 pm

The Maddow Blog – Why you just keep working more

Interesting…

Companies have tons of cash on their balance sheets, but aren’t hiring or ramping up.  Instead, they are preserving profits.

President Obama today more or less pleaded with American companies to hire more people. In a tough economy, if the government won’t goose hiring through a public economic stimulus, then it’s up to companies. Mr. Obama, at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce:

“Today, American companies have nearly $2 trillion sitting on their balance sheets. And I know that many of you have told me that you’re waiting for demand to rise before you get off the sidelines and expand, and that with millions of Americans out of work, demand has risen more slowly than any of us would like.”

“We’re in this together, but many of your own economists and salespeople are now forecasting a healthy increase in demand. So I just want to encourage you to get in the game.”

But here’s the thing — those companies are in the game already, and a lot of them are winning. Profits are up, even if hiring’s not. Part of what makes that possible is that workers have been doing more; productivity was growing at an annual rate of 2.6 percent at the end of 2010. So if you feel like you’re working harder, if you feel more tired than usual at the end of the day, there’s solid evidence that you’re not just low on vitamins and/or minerals.

via The Maddow Blog – Why you just keep working more.

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February 7, 2011 · 8:02 pm

Koch brothers: Charles and David Koch in Washington’s Republican spotlight – latimes.com

Seems the GOP is bought and paid for…

These are also the guys funding the Tea Party…

Reporting from Washington — The billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch no longer sit outside Washington’s political establishment, isolated by their uncompromising conservatism. Instead, they are now at the center of Republican power, a change most evident in the new makeup of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Wichita-based Koch Industries and its employees formed the largest single oil and gas donor to members of the panel, ahead of giants like Exxon Mobil, contributing $279,500 to 22 of the committee’s 31 Republicans, and $32,000 to five Democrats.

Nine of the 12 new Republicans on the panel signed a pledge distributed by a Koch-founded advocacy group — Americans for Prosperity — to oppose the Obama administration’s proposal to regulate greenhouse gases. Of the six GOP freshman lawmakers on the panel, five benefited from the group’s separate advertising and grass-roots activity during the 2010 campaign.

Claiming an electoral mandate, Republicans on the committee have launched an agenda of the sort long backed by the Koch brothers. A top early goal: restricting the reach of the Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees the Kochs’ core energy businesses.

The new committee members include a congressman who has hired a former Koch Industries lawyer as his chief of staff. Another, Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia, won a long-shot bid to unseat a 14-term moderate Democrat with help from Americans for Prosperity, which marshaled conservative activists in his district. By some estimates, the advocacy group spent more than a quarter-million dollars on negative ads in the campaign. “I’m just thankful that you all helped in so many ways,” Griffith told an Americans for Prosperity rally not long after his election.

via Koch brothers: Charles and David Koch in Washington’s Republican spotlight – latimes.com.

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Filed under Energy, Politics, Tea Party

February 6, 2011 · 6:10 pm

Ronald Reagan’s Real Legacy: Death, Heartache and Silence Over AIDS : LGBT | POV

Excellent article about the real legacy of Ronald Reagan…

This is exactly how I remember it…

Hat tip to PamsHouseBlend.com for originally posting this….

America is gushing Sunday over former President Ronald Reagan in recognition of what would have been his 100th birthday. Produced by Reagan groupies, the long-weekend celebrations at the newly primped Reagan Library and Museum in Simi Valley are glitzy and reverent evocations of an imagined man.

In this white-washed version of history, Reagan, not Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev (remember “glasnost,”  “perestroika,” and the impact of Levis, Coke and “Dynasty”?) is credited with “tearing down” the Berlin Wall; the trillion dollars in debt Reagan wracked up during his “conservative” presidency is ignored;  “supply-side” or “trickle-down” economics” still works, even though theory-originator David Stockman says it doesn’t; the Reagan-approved secret Iran-Contra scandal was patriotic, not subversive; and he is still the “Great Communicator” – who conned working-class “Reagan Democrats” while catering to the rich, creating a huge surge in homelessness, reveling in unchecked deregulation and extolling union-busting with the mass firing of the over-worked, striking PATCO flight controllers – even before there were trained replacements.

AND:

For LGBT people, Ronald Reagan’s presidency was the far different “mourning in America.” And unlike Nixon who was forced to resign for covering up the political Watergate scandal, Reagan didn’t even bother covering up his cold disdain, his deliberate neglect, his abject refusal to help gay men stricken in 1981 by a strange new communicable disease that turned out to be AIDS. But there was no “AIDSgate” for Reagan; the White House agreed with the Religious Right that gays deserved what they got – they deserved to die.

Rev. Jerry Falwell, head of the Moral Majority, said, “AIDS is the wrath of God upon homosexuals.” Patrick Buchanan, Reagan’s Press Secretary, said AIDS was “nature’s revenge on gay men.” Antigay Gary Bauer, Reagan’s domestic policy advisor, kept Surgeon General C. Everett Koop (selected because he was an anti-abortion Christian fundamentalist) away from Reagan:

”[In 1986] President Reagan asked the surgeon general to prepare a report on AIDS as the United States confirmed its ten-thousandth case. Leaders of the evangelical movement did not want Koop to write the report, nor did senior White House staffers who shared Koop’s evangelical convictions. As Dr. Koop related to me, “Gary Bauer [Reagan’s chief advisor on domestic policy] … was my nemesis in Washington because he kept me from the president. He kept me from the cabinet and he set up a wall of enmity between me and most of the people that surrounded Reagan because he believed that anybody who had AIDS ought to die with it. That was God’s punishment for them.”

 

via Ronald Reagan’s Real Legacy: Death, Heartache and Silence Over AIDS : LGBT | POV.

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