Tag Archives: politics

May 31, 2011 · 9:00 pm

CNN Poll: Obama’s Approval Rating Edges Up

Great news…

Now if the economy doesn’t tank- more- he should be fine for re-election next year…

The GOP Primary season is going to be the Greatest Show on Earth with all the clowns they have running…

That will only make President Obama look better to the electorate…

Bring on Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann!

President Barack Obama’s performance on national security and international affairs and his image as a strong leader appear to be behind his rising approval rating, according to new national poll conducted as the president was on an overseas visit to four countries.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday indicates that Obama’s approval rating among Americans stands at 54 percent, with 45 percent saying they disapprove of the job he’s doing as president. Obama’s approval rating appears to have steadily risen in the past two months, from 48 percent in early April to 52 percent in early May and the current mark of 54 percent.

“On specific issues, the president’s approval rating is over 50 percent on only three out of 11 items tested, and all three – terrorism, Afghanistan, and Iraq – are foreign or security issues,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “But his approval rating on every domestic issue listed in the poll is well below 50 and on most of them – including the economy, health care, taxes, and the budget deficit – his rating has remained flat or dropped since the start of the year.”

via CNN Poll: Obama’s approval rating edges up thanks to foreign policy – CNN Political Ticker – CNN.com Blogs.

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May 31, 2011 · 7:30 pm

Robert Hurt and His Incompetent Staff Fail Again…

I’m on the mailing list for Virginia Republican Congressman Robert Hurt both because it amuses me and to see what he’s up to….

I just received his Memorial Day message– this morning….

Uh, Robbie, Memorial Day was yesterday….You didn’t get your paper in on time and this isn’t Hampden-Sydney College.

You are in the big leagues now…at least theoretically.

I still can’t believe folks in my old home District voted for this guy to replace the incredibly smart, effective and dedicated Tom Perriello.

They are getting just what they deserve….

Incompetent representation due to incompetent voting…

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May 30, 2011 · 9:00 pm

Eric Cantor On ‘Face The Nation’: Disaster Relief For Joplin Tornado Victims Must Be Offset

This guy really is a disgrace on so many levels….

Totally heartless…

On Sunday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) reiterated his position that disaster relief funds for the tornado victims in Joplin, Missouri must be paid for with cuts to other programs. “Congress will find the money,” Cantor said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” “And it will be offset.”

“I know that America is just stunned by the scope of devastation and loss and the horrific tragedy that the people of Joplin and other places across the country really are experiencing this tornado season,” Cantor said. The federal government typically pays for disaster relief, but Cantor has said repeatedly that the government must maintain fiscal discipline. On Sunday, he compared the situation to that of a family putting off buying a new care when a family member became ill.

“When a family is struck with tragedy — like the family of Joplin … let’s say if they had $10,000 set aside to do something else with, to buy a new car … and then they were struck with a sick member of the family or something, and needed to take that money to apply it to that, that’s what they would do, because families don’t have unlimited money. And, really, neither does the federal government.”

Democratic lawmakers from districts hit by the storms have blasted Republicans for talking about the need to pay for an emergency package, HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery reported:

“Where is his heart?” Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) said of Cantor. “Where is his compassion for people who are suffering today?”

“If they want to fight and quibble over the supplemental, I mean, they are heartless. What’s wrong with them?” Clay said. “Nothing for the average American community. That’s what they’re saying: we don’t have anything for the average American community.”

via Eric Cantor On ‘Face The Nation’: Disaster Relief For Joplin Tornado Victims Must Be Offset (VIDEO).

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May 30, 2011 · 12:10 pm

Happy Memorial Day

And thanks to all the Veterans.

Especially the ones still serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We hope you come home soon….

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May 29, 2011 · 12:30 pm

Married Couples in less than Half of US Households

When are people going to finally face the fact that the “Ozzie and Harriet”, “Father Knows Best”, “Leave it to Beaver” world is gone?

If it ever existed in the first place…

The Conservatives keep harping on Family Values, but I always ask “Whose Family?”

My family of two Gay Men, a dog and two cats?  A family of 2 twentysomethings too financially insecure to think about a house and kids?  A family led by a single mother with children she has to feed, clothe and take care of alone?  A family of two women with children?  A family of one elderly American living alone?

Let’s get real here….

If you are going to talk about Family Values, it’s time to think about what a Family really is….

There are many kinds of Families…

Not all are what some  political Conservatives with an agenda want to force a Family to be…

Three mornings a week, when Becky Leung gets ready for work, her boyfriend is just getting home from his overnight job. When her mother drops hints about her twin sister’s marriage, she laughs it off. And when she thinks about getting married herself, she worries first about her career.

Leung, 27, cohabits in a Portland, Ore., townhome with her boyfriend but has no plans yet to wed, a reflection of the broader cultural shift in the U.S. away from the traditional definition of what it means to be a household.

Data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau shows married couples have found themselves in a new position: They’re no longer the majority.

It’s a trend that’s been creeping along for decades, but in the 2010 Census, married couples represent 48 percent of all households. That’s down from 52 percent in the last Census and, for the first time in U.S. history, puts households led by married couples as a plurality.

via Married couples in less than half of US households – Yahoo! News.

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May 29, 2011 · 10:23 am

Let’s Face the Music and Dance

There’s a reason Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers became so beloved and famous during the Great Depression.

Not just style and talent, but escapism…

When things get really bad, it’s best to recognize the facts and not ignore them.  It’s also best not to let them overwhelm you.  Life goes on and one has to make the best of it while finding joy in the  moment.

Fred and Ginger dancing embodies that philosophy for me…

Maybe I’m just another victim of the Hollywood Dream Factory, but how bad can it be when you have Fred, Ginger, Nat King Cole and Irving Berlin all wrapped up together?

Here’s a little video I found on YouTube to enlighten our Sunday Morning…

Beats Church for me….

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May 29, 2011 · 6:00 am

Support Collapses for House Republicans

From Political Wire…

This shows that familiarity does breed contempt.

The more the true GOP Agenda comes out, the more people know, the less they like the Republicans.

Now if the notoriously  short memory of the American Electorate can just retain this information by the next election…

A new Democracy Corps (D) survey finds disapproval of House Republicans has surged from 46% in February to 55% in April to a striking 59% now.

Disapproval now outnumbers approval two-to-one; intense disapproval by three-to-one.

via Support Collapses for House Republicans.

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May 28, 2011 · 8:00 pm

Ayn Rand Indoctrination at American Universities, Sponsored by the Right Wing | | AlterNet

Another great article from Alternet.  This one by Daniel Denvir.

I’ll keep saying it:  Hillary was right!  There is a vast right-wing conspiracy going on out there.  It’s becoming more and more obvious….

These days, rich conservatives want a lot more than their names on university buildings in exchange for big donations. The Koch brothers recently endowed two economics professorships at Florida State University in exchange for a say over faculty hires. Banker John Allison, long-time head of BB&T, has donated to 60 universities in exchange for their agreeing to teach Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged–some agreements even include the outrageous stipulation that the professor teaching the course “have a positive interest in and be well versed in Objectivism.”

The economic crisis has opened American universities to ever more brazen–and at times decidedly strange–attacks on the hallowed principle of academic freedom. Conservative efforts to shape hearts and minds on campus, however, are far from new. Like anything in a capitalist society, academia is a place where people with money fight for power, and take their advantage where they can. Indeed, the effort to mold higher education–which the Right has long caricatured as a hotbed of revolutionary agitation–in the image of the establishment has been central to the rise of modern conservatism.

“Conservatives have been funding such efforts for a while, but usually fairly quietly and without the rough touch of the Koch brothers,” says David Farber, a professor of history at Temple University and author of The Rise and Fall of Modern American Conservatism.

via Ayn Rand Indoctrination at American Universities, Sponsored by the Right Wing | | AlterNet.

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May 28, 2011 · 6:30 pm

Why the Democratic Party Has Abandoned the Middle Class in Favor of the Rich | | AlterNet

Great article from Kevin Drum at “Mother Jones” reposted at Alternet.com.

This is really worth reading if you are still tying to figure out why things did not turn out as well as some of us hoped after the 2008 Elections…

In 2008, a liberal Democrat was elected president. Landslide votes gave Democrats huge congressional majorities. Eight years of war and scandal and George W. Bush had stigmatized the Republican Party almost beyond redemption. A global financial crisis had discredited the disciples of free-market fundamentalism, and Americans were ready for serious change.

Or so it seemed. But two years later, Wall Street is back to earning record profits, and conservatives are triumphant. To understand why this happened, it’s not enough to examine polls and tea parties and the makeup of Barack Obama’s economic team. You have to understand how we fell so short, and what we rightfully should have expected from Obama’s election. And you have to understand two crucial things about American politics.

More:  Why the Democratic Party Has Abandoned the Middle Class in Favor of the Rich | | AlterNet.

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May 28, 2011 · 3:42 pm

I Was a Right-Wing Evangelical Pastor — Until I Saw the Light

Wonderful article from Jason Childs in Church and State Magazine reprinted at Alternet…

This has always been my position:  People need to break out of their bubbles if they want to recognize bullshit and lies when they see it and hear it…

Once you get out and about in the world, you find people have much more in common than they have in differences…

I was a Liberty University-trained evangelical pastor. I was sure that I was right and that every other person not of my faith was going to burn in hell forever. I was taught that we as Christians should take this nation back, only to find out later that we never had it to begin with.

After five years of teaching this homophobic, divisive message that has hurt so many millions of people in our world, I went through a divorce. The Southern Baptist Convention will not let you remain in the ministry after a divorce, so I had to think of something else to do with my life. After several years of selling cars, I decided to become a truck driver –; you know, see America and all that jazz.

Well, I did see America, and the country I saw was very different from the one I was taught about by Jerry Falwell and my mentors at Florida Bible College. What I found was that this nation is filled with people from all walks of life, and from every different culture. I met thousands of people, from the beautiful forests of Washington state to the bayous of Louisiana. I found that these folks are not the wicked sinners I was taught about. They are just good-hearted Americans from all faiths and cultural backgrounds, trying to pay their bills, care for their families and have a few good times with their friends and lovers.

I began to notice a change in me as well. I started reading a lot of books that were not on the seminary reading list and listening to NPR as I was driving 10 hours a day. It was a great second education. I decided to return to Alabama and work to help all of the people of my great state, and to protect them from the oppression I was once a part of propagating.

More:   I Was a Right-Wing Evangelical Pastor — Until I Saw the Light | Civil Liberties | AlterNet.

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