Tag Archives: Republicans

December 31, 2011 · 3:00 pm

Richard Nixon Had Gay Affair, ‘Nixon’s Darkest Secrets’ Claims

NO!!!

It’s bad enough we had to accept J Edgar Hoover into the Club.

We have to draw the line somewhere!

This is just not acceptable.  It has to be wrong….

Please let it be wrong!

From the Huffington Post:

Watergate was only one of several scandalous aspects of former President Richard Nixon’s life, according to a new book by a former White House correspondent.

Nixon’s Darkest Secrets: The Inside Story of America’s Most Troubled President by Don Fulsom (Thomas Dunne Books, $25.99), former correspondent for United Press International, makes several eye-catching accusations, including that the former president had a gay affair with Charles “Bebe” Rebozo, a Key Biscayne, Fla. banker apparently with ties to the mob.

The allegation is especially noteworthy because, as gay news website Queerty reports, Nixon was known to have made homophobic remarks.

From Queerty:

When a close aide to President Johnson was caught having sex with a former sailor in a YMCA bathroom, Nixon called the man “ill,” and added that such people “cannot be in places of high trust.”

The new book also alleges that Nixon beat his wife and that his aides referred to him as “our drunk.”

The Daily Mail reports that Nixon’s alleged secret lover also had a shady history of his own.

According to the Mail, the FBI claims Rebozo had ties to mob bosses Santo Trafficante and Alfred ‘Big Al’ Polizzi. He also ran a bank that, a former mobster claims, was used to launder money.

The book’s press release says that Fulsom used interviews with former White House staffers and ex-members of Congress, as well as government documents, to support his claims.

The Nixon Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

via Richard Nixon Had Gay Affair, ‘Nixon’s Darkest Secrets’ Claims.

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December 22, 2011 · 2:16 pm

Santa Baby

I will, hopefully, not be posting much on politics the next few days.

Due to the Holidays, there is little going on except more Republican obstruction and childishness.  In other words, the situation is business as usual and I’m going to try to ignore it all for a few days to focus on enjoying the Holidays and bracing myself for the 2012 Election Madness that starts right after the Holidays end…

So….let’s all focus on enjoying the next few days and worry about life in a decaying democracy later.  After all, tomorrow is another day…..

In that spirit, let’s move on to the fun and frivolous!

Eartha Kitt owns this song, but there really isn’t a great video….

However, Kylie Minogue does a damn good job here!

Let’s not talk about the Madonna version….

Here is today’s Christmas Video:

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December 15, 2011 · 2:51 pm

Anti-Incumbent Fever Could Hurt Republicans

This is good news.

I just hope the trend holds until next year AND that the Dems actually nominate credible, progressive candidates as alternatives….

I’m so sick of the Dem’s nominating Candidates who are like GOP Lites, instead of true Progressives.  I hope they realize how much things have changed…

From the Huffington Post:

Results from a new national survey from the Pew Research Center should strike fear into the hearts of incumbents in Congress, especially those who are members of the Republican Party. A record number of respondents want to vote sitting lawmakers out of office, and Republicans take more of the blame than Democrats for perceptions of a do-nothing Congress.

According to the Pew Research report, two-thirds (67 percent) of registered voters nationwide say “most members of Congress” should be voted out of office in 2012, while only 20 percent want most members reelected. This desire to fire all incumbents marks a record level of discontent since the Pew Center started asking the question 18 years ago, far exceeding previous highs of 57 percent in 2010 and 56 percent in 1994.

via Pew Research Poll: Anti-Incumbent Fever Could Hurt Republicans.

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December 14, 2011 · 7:00 pm

My Grown Up Christmas List

People tell me I am impossible to buy for at Christmas time, so I thought I would make it easier for them this year.

Here is my Grown Up Christmas List.  I don’t mean that smaltzy song about no more wars, no more people torn apart, etc.  I’m not that optimistic, so I’ll set my sights a little lower…

I have more than enough “stuff”, so here is what I really want….

If you can’t get it all now, I’m patient.

My Birthday is in October…

  1. That I win the Powerball lottery.  I’m not greedy, but it would be nice if the Jackpot was more than$50MM.
  2. For there to be a retro revival among today’s youth making Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Katharine Hepburn, Lena Horne, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman and Steve McQueen Role Models again.
  3. For all religious Colleges and Universities to go out of business so their “students” would have to deal with the real world and a diversity of opinions and backgrounds while getting a real education.
  4. A return to the concepts of personal honor, responsibility and dignity.
  5. Manners.  Good manners…..
  6. The understanding that it is preferable to look and act like Ladies and Gentlemen rather than Goths, Pimps, Bigots, Braggards, Thugs, Slackards, Bikers and ‘Ho’s…
  7. That Occupy Wall Street comes roaring back to life in the Spring and is the major force in the 2012 elections.
  8. The abolition of all MBA programs and a renewed focus on Liberal Arts Educations that teach people to think, not manipulate numbers for personal gain.
  9. A decent nation-wide passenger train service so we can avoid our horrible airlines.
  10. That Virgin Atlantic airways takes over the entire US Airline industry and shows them how to do it right.
  11. The understanding that some countries do some things better than we do and that it’s okay to learn from that…
  12. The return of the Preppie Look that was so popular in my youth. We really did look cute….
  13. Laws mandating technology that Telephones and mobile devices will shut down while a motor vehicle engine is running or the person is in a Theatre or Concert Hall.
  14. For people to finally realize and accept that Marriage is, in actuality, only a legal contract between two people, regardless of their sex, that conveys certain public and private protections and obligations and that has nothing to do with religion.  Therefore, it’s not any one else’s goddamn business but those two people so contracted.
  15. If we can’t legalize Gay Marriage, let’s criminalize Straight Divorce.  I’m not above revenge….
  16. That people realize there is no longer any such thing as a Country Club, fiscally responsible, socially liberal Republican.
  17. That someone can logically explain to me why people who think they are such good Christians and moral arbitrators will vote for a  man who abandoned his first wife in the hospital for his mistress, then had an affair on wife number 2, said mistress,  with the latest Mrs Gingrich, but still claims to support a “no adultery” pledge.
  18. Someone to prove to me that Mitt Romney is real and isn’t just a big robotic Ken Doll- made in China, of course.
  19. For all the Crocs factories to go out of business and all existing crocs to spontaneously combust.
  20. Public funding of all US Elections and the abolition of private and corporate donations to political candidates.
  21. A Constitutional amendment that Corporations are not People and that Money is not Free Speech.
  22. The instant revocation of the tax exempt status of any religious institution of any kind that dabbles in politics by telling people how to vote.
  23. For people to realize, once and for all that it was deregulation and primarily the policies of the George W Bush Administration that ruined our economy and caused the deficit.
  24. That some of the Wall Street “leaders” who helped cause the economic crash actually be held accountable and go to jail.
  25. That people realize we have to invest in the future to grow out of the deficit.
  26. While we are at it, that people finally realize George W Bush and Dick Cheney are War Criminals and they are prosecuted as such.
  27. Fox News goes bankrupt and shuts down.
  28. Legislation that states “opinion” journalism must be so identified on TV with a border of flashing red lights and tap dancing pigs so people will know the difference between reporting and propaganda.
  29. Legislation that all company profits, over a certain percent,  must be reinvested in growing the company and creating jobs, not just sat upon or used for Executive Salaries.
  30. All Corporate lobbying expenditures must be matched equally with taxes -paid dollar to dollar, no loopholes.
  31. Legislation that no company employee may make  salary more than X percentage more than the lowest paid employee.
  32. Permanent incarceration, in solitary confinement, of anyone named Khardashian.
  33. The Cancellation of “Jersey Shore”.
  34. A committee, headed by and with veto power held by me, to be created to determine who is an actual “Star” and who is just trash after some cash.
  35. If the GOP wants people to pee in a cup for a check, then all politicians should do the same.
  36. An IQ test and threshold to run for Public Office.
  37. That all my friends from the past years, who meant so much to me, would join Facebook so I could find them and be in touch again.
  38. That people would exercise some control over how many silly pet pictures with captions they post on Facebook.  An occasional one is  cute, but too many, especially as we grow older,  makes one fear they are becoming pet hoarders or otherwise demented.
  39. That everyone had a full length mirror in their home and looked at it long, hard and critically before going out in public.
  40. Effective Mass transportation in all cities with more than 50,000 people.
  41. Renewed focus on planning, creating, saving and building for the future instead of shopping for useless crap to own now.
  42. Renewed focus on the concept of Quality over Quantity.
  43. Legislation prohibiting any more Broadway Musicals based on relatively recent movies.
  44. That television shows must be at least as long as the total air time of their commercials.
  45. Regular, heavily discounted airline fares between all US  airports and London and Paris.
  46. Requirements that all school districts fund Senior and Junior High School Cultural Exchange Learning trips abroad for all students.  You may raise my taxes for this….
  47. For people in the South to realize the Republican Party is using you and not working for your interests….
  48. For the Tea Party People to finally admit they are just bigots who hate President Obama because he is Black….
  49. That 2012 brings us an election resulting in a Democratic President, Senate and House.  At least, something positive might get done…
  50. That the Tea Party is dead and gone.
  51. For people not to argue about the “War on Christmas” or what holidays and traditions should be recognized, but to just shut up and enjoy a season of good will and sharing time-and cocktails- with friends.
  52. Respect that we share many Holidays and Traditions in December- and at other times-with many people who may not believe as we do- and that’s okay.

If you do celebrate Christmas, I ask you to take this time to think  not just about Jesus’s birth but about his life and what he stood for- helping the poor, feeding the hungry, loving your neighbor- and see how you can emulate these Christian behaviors throughout the coming year.

Let’s try to keep this in mind instead of judging and trying to force your beliefs on others throughout the year….

That’s my job.

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December 11, 2011 · 2:53 pm

Mitt Romney: Poor Little Rich Boy

In honor of Mitt’s $10,000 bet with Rick Perry at last night’s debate….

Most of the pundits today seem to think it’s a fatal error that makes it clear that $10,000 to Mitt is like $10 is to most  everyone else.

They opine that this means Mitt is one of the 1% who can’t relate to the Middle Class or the 99%…

And that the Middle Class and 99% won’t be able to relate to Mitt….

DUH…..

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December 1, 2011 · 9:08 pm

If Congress Left For 536 Days (Like Belgium), It Could Almost Eliminate The Deficit

This is probably the best we could hope for…

The Republicans are going to block anything positive….

But, at least the GOP couldn’t do any more damage….

From ThinkProgress.org:

 

While Republicans and Democrats continue to fight over how to reduce America’s debt and deficits — moving from near-government shutdowns to failed super committees and opposition to both spending cuts and tax increases — the government of Belgium may have inadvertently provided Congress with an example of how to fix the problem: do absolutely nothing.

After 536 days without a government, Belgian opposition parties struck a deal today to form a new coalition led by Socialist Elio Di Rupo. On this side of the pond, 563 days without any congressional action on fiscal or budgetary measures would go most of the way toward achieving the deficit reduction Congress is longing for. As Center for American Progress Director of Tax and Budget Policy Michael Linden has pointed out, if Congress were do to nothing between now and January 2013 (just 397 days from now), the federal budget deficit would fall to just 1.6 percent of gross domestic product and continue dropping after that:

Similarly, debt as a share of GDP would fall to just 61 percent by 2021:

Such reductions would take place primarily due to the expiration of the budget-busting Bush tax cuts, which cost roughly $2.5 trillion over 10 years. The spending cuts triggered by the inability of the supercommittee to reach a deal would also take place, and multiple policies that Congress generally kicks down the road, like the alternative minimum tax, would also take effect.

Of course, there are policies Congress could enact to actually help unemployed Americans and the struggling economy, like passing laws that would create jobs and stimulate growth while addressing much-needed improvements in infrastructure and other areas. But if the goal is only to reduce debt and deficits, perhaps it’s better if members take their cue from the Belgians and just go home for a year or two.

via CHART: If Congress Left For 536 Days (Like Belgium), It Could Almost Eliminate The Deficit | ThinkProgress.

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December 1, 2011 · 6:19 pm

Top GOP Strategist Admits He’s ‘Scared’ Of Occupy Wall Street

This guy is really the one who taught the GOP how to name their outrageous bills and positions in terminology that would fool a lot of Americans.  He really helped them learn to spin unpopular ideas in a way that people didn’t realize what they were really up to…

He taught them Stealth Politics…

This really is a big deal if this guy is scared of Occupy Wall Street….

From ThinkProgress.org:

The Republican Governor’s Association met in Florida this week and featured pollster Frank Luntz, who offered a coaching session for attendees about how they should communicate to the public. Yahoo! News’ Chris Moody was there, and captured some of Luntz’s comments on Occupy Wall Street.

Luntz told attendees that he’s “scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I’m frightened to death.” The pollster warned that the movement is “having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism.” So the pollster offered some advice for them about how to fight back. Here’s a few snippets of what he said, according to Moody:

– Don’t Mention Capitalism: Luntz said that his polling research found that “The public…still prefers capitalism to socialism, but they think capitalism is immoral. And if we’re seen as defenders of quote, Wall Street, end quote, we’ve got a problem.”

– Empathize With The 99 Percent Protesters: Luntz instructed attendees to tell protesters that they “get it”: “First off, here are three words for you all: ‘I get it.’ … ‘I get that you’re. I get that you’ve seen inequality. I get that you want to fix the system.”

– Don’t Say Bonus: Luntz told Republicans to re-frame the concept of the bonus payment — which bailed-out Wall Street doles out to its employees during holidays — as “pay for performance” instead.

– Don’t Mention The Middle Class Because Americans Don’t Trust Republicans To Defend It: “They cannot win if the fight is on hardworking taxpayers,” Luntz instructed the audience. “We can say we defend the ‘middle class’ and the public will say, I’m not sure about that. But defending ‘hardworking taxpayers’ and Republicans have the advantage.”

– Don’t Talk About Taxing The Rich: Luntz reminded Republicans that Americans actually do want to tax the rich, so he reccommended they instead say that the government “takes from the rich.”

Frank Luntz is no minor pollster. He is considered to be one of the top political communications experts in the world, having provided consulting to many of the world’s top corporations, politicians, and special interest groups. That Luntz is admitting the impact of Occupy Wall Street and the 99 Percent and telling closed-door meetings of Republicans that it frightens him is a huge victory for the movement.

via Top GOP Strategist Admits He’s ‘Scared’ Of Occupy Wall Street Because It’s ‘Having An Impact’ | ThinkProgress.

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December 1, 2011 · 9:55 am

Newt Gingrich: The Return of the Megalomaniacal Opportunist

Very good perspective on Newt Gingrich and his lack of  character from Maureen Dowd in today’s New York Times.

It will be interesting to see if Newt does pull off his comeback against Romney for the GOP nomination.

Either one should be an easy target for President Obama, but Newt is especially easy to take on and hopefully take down.

The man is, as Maureen says, a megalomaniac, a liar, and a hypocrite.  The more you get to know Newt, the more you grow to hate him.  And to feel slimy for just reading about him…

My only concern is that, if by some fluke he does win the Presidency, he could be by far the biggest danger to both the country and the world.

Again, this guy is a megalomaniac.  And probably a sociopath….

Romney is a mundane opportunist who reverses himself on core issues. Gingrich is a megalomaniacal opportunist who brazenly indulges in the same sins that he rails about to tear down political rivals.

Republicans have a far greater talent for hypocrisy than easily cowed Democrats do — and no doubt appreciate that in a leader.

Gingrich led the putsch against Democratic Speaker Jim Wright in 1988, bludgeoning him for an ethically sketchy book deal. The following year, as he moved into the House Republican leadership, he himself got in trouble for an ethically sketchy book deal.

Gingrich was part of the House Republican mob trying to impeach Bill Clinton for hiding his affair with a young government staffer, even as Newt himself was hiding his affair with a young government staffer.

Gingrich has excoriated Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae for dragging the country into a financial spiral and now demands that Freddie Mac be broken up. But it turns out that he was on contract with Freddie for six years and paid $1.6 million to $1.8 million (yacht trips and Tiffany’s bling for everyone!) to help the company strategize about how to soften up critical conservatives and stay alive.

At a Republican debate in New Hampshire last month before this lucrative deal became public, Gingrich suggested that Barney Frank and Chris Dodd should be put in jail. “All I’m saying is, everybody in the media who wants to go after the business community ought to start by going after the politicians who were at the heart of the sickness that is weakening this country,” he said.

Another transcendent moment in Gingrich hypocrisy. He risibly rationalized his deal, saying he was giving the mortgage company advice as a prestigious historian rather than a hired gun.

Gingrich boasts that he’s full of fresh ideas, but it always seems to essentially be the same old one: Let’s turn the clock back to the ’50s. Just as Newt, who dodged service in Vietnam, once cast the Clintons as hippie “McGovernicks,” now he limns the Occupy Wall Street protesters as hippies who need to take a bath and get a job.

Maybe the ideal man to fix Washington’s dysfunction is the one who made it dysfunctional. He broke it so he should own it. And Newt has the best reason to long for the presidency: He’d never be banished to the back of Air Force One again.

via My Man Newt – NYTimes.com.

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November 30, 2011 · 7:04 pm

The Future of the Obama Coalition

Future demographic trends strongly support a Democratic majority- if the Dems start acting like Dems.

There is also the great Education Divide.

There is also a big disconnect among White people based on education.  I see it more and more with people I know.  Educated people tend to break for the Democrats.  This makes sense.  If you can apply critical thinking skills, you just can’t buy the GOP agenda.  Lesser educated Whites continue to vote GOP- for reasons I can’t fathom.  These folks are seriously voting against their own interests, but you just can’t reason with them.

The GOP has built their focus on the Southern Strategy since Nixon.  This is to appeal to uneducated, prejudiced White people.  It worked for years, but there are fewer and fewer folks in this demographic profile.  And it’s going to continue to die out….

I just hope the trends have moved far enough for this to work in 2012….

From the NY Times:

For decades, Democrats have suffered continuous and increasingly severe losses among white voters. But preparations by Democratic operatives for the 2012 election make it clear for the first time that the party will explicitly abandon the white working class.

All pretense of trying to win a majority of the white working class has been effectively jettisoned in favor of cementing a center-left coalition made up, on the one hand, of voters who have gotten ahead on the basis of educational attainment — professors, artists, designers, editors, human resources managers, lawyers, librarians, social workers, teachers and therapists — and a second, substantial constituency of lower-income voters who are disproportionately African-American and Hispanic.

It is instructive to trace the evolution of a political strategy based on securing this coalition in the writings and comments, over time, of such Democratic analysts as Stanley Greenberg and Ruy Teixeira. Both men were initially determined to win back the white working-class majority, but both currently advocate a revised Democratic alliance in which whites without college degrees are effectively replaced by well-educated socially liberal whites in alliance with the growing ranks of less affluent minority voters, especially Hispanics.

via The Future of the Obama Coalition – NYTimes.com.

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November 22, 2011 · 7:57 am

Fox News Makes You Know Less

If we really had truth in advertising laws, they wouldn’t even be able to call it Fox “News”.

It should really be called something like Fox Propaganda or Fox Positive Reinforcement for Republican Paranoiacs or, at the very least, Fox Fantasy.

God knows they don’t report facts….

I’m convinced watching Fox “News” more than 5 minutes a day is a leading cause of Alzheimer’s Disease…..

It has to kill more brain cells more than heavy drinking…..

From Political Wire:

 

A new Fairleigh Dickinson PublicMind Poll finds that the Sunday morning political shows on television “do the most to help people learn about current events, while some outlets, especially Fox News, lead people to be even less informed than those who they don’t watch any news at all.”

“For example, people who watch Fox News, the most popular of the 24-hour cable news networks, are 18-points less likely to know that Egyptians overthrew their government than those who watch no news at all (after controlling for other news sources, partisanship, education and other demographic factors). Fox News watchers are also 6-points less likely to know that Syrians have not yet overthrown their government than those who watch no news.”

These results mirror a University of Maryland study published last year.

via Some News Makes You Know Less.

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