Tag Archives: Elections

June 28, 2012 · 11:21 pm

Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown

For my amusement….

I like to imagine this was Elizabeth Warren’s reaction to seeing Scott Brown’s Cosmo Centerfold….

As well as her reaction to his ability to serve as an effective Senator…

It certainly reflects mine…

For Reference:  The Current Senator from Massachusetts:

Cute don’t cut it when compared to smart…..

One of the lessons of growing older…..

It’s time someone taught Scott Brown that….He’s cruised by for too long on his looks and manufactured image.

I’m hoping Elizabeth Warren will prove me wrong on my estimation of the intelligence of the American Electorate and be the first Woman elected President of the U.S.!

Don’t own the copyrights…just saw these pics on the web….

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May 8, 2012 · 5:03 pm

For Those Still Trying to Figure out the Gay Marriage Issue…

Today, North Carolina is voting whether to approve Amendment One to the Constitution which says, as follows:

“Constitutional amendment to provide that marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State.”

If you live in North Carolina and have not gone out to vote against this spiteful, hateful attempt to spread hate and discrimination, please DO SO NOW!

People need to understand that “marriage” is a secular, legal contract.  Religion has nothing to do with it.  I’m fine with anyone having a religious ceremony-or not- but we should not prohibit unmarried heterosexual or Gay couples from sharing the same legal protections as married people.

I’ve been with my partner for 15 years and don’t you dare try to tell me our relationship should not have the same legal recognition as straight couples.  This is the only way to protect us in the event of sickness or, god forbid, death, so that we each can care for the other and no one can interfere with our wishes.  Or contest our estates….I hate to think how complex this is for people with children.

I am grateful to all the People of Faith who have come out against this mean-spirited, petty attempt to enshrine discrimination into the North Carolina Constitution.

However, a substantial number of Fundamentalist Christians are claiming they support this hateful amendment based on “biblical” principles….

This is for them:

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March 3, 2012 · 10:02 am

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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February 17, 2012 · 6:14 pm

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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January 23, 2012 · 9:45 pm

Ann Coulter Criticizes Newt Gingrich And South Carolina

The GOP establishment is letting all their major attack dogs loose on Gingrich now….

And none are scarier, loonier and more self-promoting than that junk yard dog Ann Coulter….

She’s kind of like a female Newt Gingrich…

If even she is after him, it is proof his South Carolina victory has really scared the Republican Establishment and, if he wins Florida, it’s going to be GOP Panic in the Streets time among the Washington elites…

Now, I’m just waiting for a nasty comment from Peggy Noonan when she “thinks” her mic is off– as so conveniently happened with her Sarah Palin comments.

We are heading toward a civil war in the GOP between the Establishment and that great big bunch of loonies who they call their Base….

The patients are starting to run the Mad House and the Corporate Republicans see the whole thing coming down around them in a loss of epic proportions if the Base takes charge and Newt wins their nomination….

Isn’t it lovely?

From HuffingtonPost.com

Conservative pundit Ann Coulter laid into GOP candidate Newt Gingrich and those in South Carolina who voted for him in the state’s primary on Saturday.

Coulter appeared on Fox News’ weekend edition of “Fox and Friends” on Sunday. Coulter, who staunchly supports GOP candidate Mitt Romney, criticized South Carolinians for rather having “the emotional satisfaction of a snotty remark toward the president than to beat Obama in the fall.” She criticized Gingrich for his debate performances, and said that he “would say things that didn’t really make sense. It’s what you usually associate with Democrats.”

Coulter continued to rip Gingrich and called him the “least electable” of the Republican candidates. She also described Gingrich as the “least conservative.” She added that in electing Gingrich, “South Carolina [was] going back to its Democratic roots.”

via Ann Coulter Criticizes Newt Gingrich And South Carolina, Defends CNN’s John King (VIDEO).

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January 23, 2012 · 7:38 pm

Buffett On Why Romney Should Pay Higher Taxes: He’s Just ‘Shoving Around Money,’ Not ‘Straining His Back’

I’ll keep saying it over and over:  There is no reason to vote for a Republican unless you are a millionaire only interested in trying to protect your own interests.

Here, American’s favorite Billionaire, calls Romney out on that point:

From ThinkProgress.org:

Last week, Mitt Romney finally admitted that he pays a tax rate of 15 percent, lower than that of many middle-class families. Romney is taxed at such a low rate because, as he freely admits, all of his income comes from investments, and is thus subject to the top capital gains tax rate of 15 percent, rather than the top income tax rate of 35 percent.

However, Romney has refused to sign on to the Obama administration’s “Buffett rule,” which aims to ensure that millionaires can’t dodge taxes to the extent that they’re paying less than teachers. Today, billionaire investor Warren Buffett himself was asked about Romney’s tax rate, replying that letting millionaire investors like Romney pay such low taxes is “the wrong policy” because he makes his income by just “shoving around money”:

He makes his money the same way I make my money. He makes money by moving around big bucks, not by straining his back and going to work cleaning the toilets or whatever it may be. He makes it shoving around money. I make it shoving around money. If you look at the 400 highest incomes in the United States, they average $220 million. Something like 90 of them are effectively unemployed. They have no earned income, and that number has gone up over the years. […]

It’s the wrong policy to have. Nothing wrong about [Romney] doing that. He will not pay more than the law requires. I don’t fault him for that in the least, but I do fault the law that allows him and me, earning enormous sums to pay over all federal taxes at a rate that is about half what the average person in my office pays.

via Buffett On Why Romney Should Pay Higher Taxes: He’s Just ‘Shoving Around Money,’ Not ‘Straining His Back’ | ThinkProgress.

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January 23, 2012 · 4:09 pm

Newt Gingrich and Richard Nixon: Flawed, Dangerous and So Much Alike….

This guy really nails it in this article:  Newt wants to be Reagan, but he’s really more like Nixon.

Mean, insecure, petty, divisive, petulant, vindictive, smart and dangerous…..

Great article from Jon Meacham in “Time”:

He won with a glower. After Newt Gingrich in the Jan. 19 Republican debate fought off a totally reasonable question about an ex-wife’s account of his acknowledged adultery with an attack on “the elite media,” there was little doubt about what would happen. South Carolina is the rawest of GOP states, the political embodiment of the legacy of the man Gingrich was channeling with that stare and orchestrated outrage onstage: Richard Nixon.

Like every other living Republican (and more than a few living Democrats), Gingrich longs to be seen as the heir to Ronald Reagan. That’s understandable. Reagan is the Republican FDR, an exemplar of presidential greatness. You could play a rather serious drinking game during GOP debates if you took a shot at every evocation of Reagan. Beginning with his ads in New Hampshire contrasting himself as a “bold Reagan conservative” and Romney as a “Massachusetts moderate,” Gingrich has taken the Reagan strategy the furthest.

For all of this, though, Gingrich has much more in common with the 37th President than with the 40th. His language and even some of his mannerisms (remember the glower) directly descend from the Nixon of 1968.

The analogous elements are obvious. Like Nixon, Gingrich is smart, with a wide-ranging and entrepreneurial mind. Like Nixon, Gingrich is a striver who seems insecure around traditional establishment figures even though he has achieved much more than nearly all the politicians, editors and reporters he seems to at once loathe and fear. Like Nixon, Gingrich is fluent in the vernacular of cultural populism, brilliantly casting contemporary American life in terms of an overarching conflict between “real” people and distant “elites” bent on the destruction of all that is good and noble about the U.S.

His win in South Carolina on Saturday, Gingrich said, was about “something very fundamental that I wish the powers that be in the news media will take seriously: the American people feel that they have elites who have been trying for a half-century to force us to quit being American and become some kind of other system.”

Nixon was a genius at this kind of politics, speaking up, as he put it in accepting the Republican nomination in Miami in 1968, for “the forgotten Americans, the non-shouters, the non-demonstrators.” In his epochal memorandum on “Middle America and the Emerging Republican Majority,” Nixon political strategist Kevin Phillips spoke of the resentments “the great, ordinary, Lawrence Welkish mass of Americans from Maine to Hawaii” felt against the liberal elites who “make their money out of plans, ideas, communication, social upheaval, happenings, excitement,” according to Nixonland by Rick Perlstein. In recently released grand-jury testimony from 1975, Nixon told prosecutors that attacking him “is going to make you much more popular with the Washington press corps, with the Georgetown social set, if you ever go to Georgetown, with the power elite in this country.”

What is interesting about Gingrich is that his instincts for cultural division are leavened with a futuristic sense of possibility and progress that has something in common with Bill Clinton’s cheery politics of tomorrow. These marbled elements, I think, help account for Gingrich’s unevenness as a candidate and as an incumbent back in the day.

The question now is how far the Nixonian strategy can take Gingrich, who will doubtless continue to invoke the sunnier Reagan while using tactics learned from the darker Nixon. For most candidates, the kind of anger Gingrich is stirring is a good starter but not a good finisher — yet there is another element of the 2012 story with antecedents in 1968 that has yet to play out. “Watching George Romney [father of Mitt Romney] run for the presidency,” said Governor James Rhodes of Ohio, “was like watching a duck try to make love to a football.” I’m not entirely sure what that means, except that the bid was an undertaking that did not work. We’ll soon see whether there is anything new under the (Florida) sun.

More:   Newt Gingrich and Richard Nixon: Insecure, Smart Strivers | TIME Ideas | TIME.com.

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January 21, 2012 · 5:28 pm

Romney Campaign Busing in Mormons to Make Crowds

This is showing up on several websites today….

The Romney campaign is just collapsing in South Carolina and bussing in Mormon college students to make their crowds seem bigger and more excited….

This is really getting interesting….

From DailyKos:

Buzzfeed reports the latest signs of the complete collapse of the Romney campaign in South Carolina:

GREENVILLE, South Carolina–Outside Tommy’s Ham House here this morning–where Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich scheduled back-to-back visits–a boisterous crowd of young, fresh-faced supporters was waving Romney signs and chanting, “MITT! MITT! MITT!”

But this wasn’t a grassroots youth movement rooted at the University of South Carolina. No, many of the students cheering on the candidate told BuzzFeed they were actually BYU students and young Mormons from D.C. and Virginia who traveled to the Palmetto State to give their coreligionist’s presidential effort a much-needed jolt of energy.

Kat Wardle, a 23-year-old BYU student who is spending the semester in Washington, D.C., said she and several young Latter-Day Saints have been following Romney around the state, playing the role of cheerleaders at various campaign stops.

“I was all over the place at the Lexington rally!” said Wardle, referring to a rainy outdoor event that the campaign has been spinning as an example of growing momentum. Despite the weather, a crowd of several hundred remained for the event and, Romney surrogates like Nikki Haley have pointed out, they were loud and proud.

MORE:   Daily Kos: Romney campaign busing in Mormons from D.C. to make crowds. WOW..

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October 30, 2011 · 3:03 pm

Outside Groups Eclipsing G.O.P. As Hub of Campaigns – NYTimes.com

More fallout from the Citizens United Supreme Court decision that allowed unlimited Corporate money to flow into Campaigns.

Now the Corporations and their billionaire leaders can simply buy candidates and campaigns outright instead of having to use the political parties as a middle man.

And they don’t have to deal with all those messy campaign finance regulations the Political Parties have to deal with…..

Karl Rove and this merry Band of Billionaires are already planning how to put their agenda into play next year.

This is going to be nasty.  It’s going to be a campaign season like we’ve never seen before with all this unlimited Corporate Cash spreading lies, disinformation and propaganda from the Presidential Campaign level (the Koch brothers and their Astroturf candidate Herman Cain) all the way down to the School Board races (See Art Pope in NC).

I’m really not sure our Democracy can survive this…..

I think it may be too late- the Corporate Coup d’etat may have already happened and we are just now realizing it….

From today’s New York Times:

At a time when the Republican National Committee remains weighed down by debt, outside conservative groups, freed from contribution limits by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision last year, are playing an ever larger role and operating in an increasingly coordinated fashion. In the coming months, the conservative groups will consult among themselves as they open pre-election advertising barrages against Mr. Obama and Congressional Democrats.

They have begun conversations about how to divide up the swing states where each group is likely to focus its energies, with some like Americans for Prosperity expecting to shift chiefly to Senate races and the White House. Others, like the new Congressional Leadership Fund, will look to preserve the Republican hold on the House.

Groups that have made defeating Mr. Obama their top priority expect to invest heavily in some of the new swing states where Mr. Obama made inroads in 2008, like Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. Other groups, operating in concert, will target Democratic senators they believe are ripe for unseating, like Bill Nelson of Florida, Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Sherrod Brown of Ohio.

At a time when the Republican presidential primary race has featured increasingly tough stances against illegal immigration, the independent groups have begun an aggressive program of outreach to Hispanics, hoping to offset Democratic gains among a critical voting bloc.

And they are planning to coordinate offensives in states like North Carolina and Pennsylvania, where money and organizing could pay dividends simultaneously in the presidential, Congressional and local legislative races.

via Outside Groups Eclipsing G.O.P. As Hub of Campaigns – NYTimes.com.

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October 28, 2011 · 8:38 pm

Ten Things I Hate About Republicans

As a start, let’s remember the classic premise under which the Republican Party has traditionally built its platform:  “A strong national defense and  less government intrusion into our daily lives.”  Doesn’t sound too bad on the surface, but the devil is in the details and how the GOP has evolved over the last 30 years.

The GOP used to be the bastion of White Shoe Lawyers, Old Money and the Corporate Elite.  At least they were straight forward about their goals in those days.  It was all about preserving capital within the family, making money and leaving every one else alone as long as those goals were achieved.

Then came the unholy alliance with the Religious Right.  Then they had to pretend they gave a damn about abortion and gays.  There went the part of the platform about “less government intrusion into our daily lives.”  Out the window.  The proverbial baby with the bath water,

That eventually led to most sensible people leaving the GOP.  This was all just too tacky for the Country Club Republicans to accept.  So, they moved to the Democrats and we saw the rise of the Corporatist Wing of the Democratic Party.

Arguably, a lot of today’s Democrats are very similar to the Republicans of 30 or 40 years ago.  That means a lot of people don’t quite fit anywhere.   However, the Democratic Party is more open to dissension and discussion, so most of these folks stay with the Dems and try to work it out.  The Dems negotiate, the GOP purges like the Stalinists of yore….

But I digress…let’s get back on topic.

What do I hate about the “modern” GOP?  Let me tell you…

1.  They are mean- these folks go for the jugular vein.  They don’t discuss, they don’t book dissent, they kill.  Truth is usually the first victim.  They have obviously read their Machiavelli and believe you can’t wound a prince, you must kill him.  (See Rick Perry)

2.  They lie with impunity- The modern GOP does not believe in facts, they believe in propaganda. They will look you in the eye – or more likely television camera- and lie. Their goal is to create an alternate reality that benefits the Rich without anyone getting wise to the situation.  (See Fox News)

3.  They are hypocrites-  They claim moral superiority and belief in “traditional” family values while serially abandoning wives and families for new trophy wives.  (See John McCain and Newt Gingrich)

4.  They are plastic- If Ken and Barbie ran for  office they would be Republicans.  I’m convinced the GOP and fundamentalist ministers keep the hairspray companies in business.  I would just love to put all the GOP debaters in a wind tunnel and see how they came out.  I wonder if their hair is real or if it’s like some play-dough helmet they put on everyday….(See Mitt Romney and Rick Perry)

5.  They are proud of their ignorance- They hate science and won’t believe simple facts.  They can’t be bothered to learn or study the issues.  (See Herman Cain and Sarah Palin-among others)

6.  They are intolerant of other religions or the religious views of others- Each of them seem to be convinced they have a direct line to God and he speaks only to them.  Anyone who disagrees with them is bound for hell.  (See Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum)

7.  They are heartless-  Ideological purity is of the utmost importance-particularly to the Libertarian Republicans.  These guys believe in almost no government.  If you get sick and don’t have any money, it’s okay to let you die.  They think you should have planned better and worked harder. (See Ron Paul)

8.  They are anti-intellectual-  Used to be we wanted the smartest guy or gal in the room for our President.  Not the GOP.  Not only are they proud of their ignorance, they dismiss intelligence and intellectual curiosity as signs of ideological weakness.  They think people who actually study the issues and the facts are wasting valuable time.  To them, facts are to be adjusted to drive the agenda and one shouldn’t think too much about things like starting a war with Iraq because someone insulted Daddy.  (See George W. Bush)

9.  The are vengeful- They truly believe there are only two important concepts in politics:  Loyalty and Revenge.  You must be loyal, without asking questions, or you will face their revenge.  (See George W. Bush and Dick Cheney)

10.  They are always out for themselves- Their motto really should be “I’ve got mine, screw you.”  They don’t believe in anything that stands in the way of profiteering.  It’s all about “me” to them.  They don’t even recognize the existence of anyone else as that would require them to stop gazing at themselves in the mirror and reading their bank statements.  (See Sarah Palin)

I could go on, but I’ll stop here for now….

I’m sure before the Republican Presidential Primaries are over, I’ll be able to add to this list…..

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