Tag Archives: Republicans

April 2, 2011 · 9:38 am

What Does John Boehner Do for a Living? Less Than Half in Poll Know

This is actually better than I thought it would be…

I’m convinced if Democracy ultimately fails in America, it will be because of ignorance and inattention…

That thought was re-enforced by last year’s election of so many Republicans so soon after they nearly destroyed the world economic system…

From Poll Watch:

Most Americans know that “No Child Left Behind” has something to do with education, that Hillary Clinton is Secretary of State and that Moammar Gadhafy is the leader of Libya, but when it comes to Congress, less than half of the public knows that John Boehner is the Speaker of the House or that the Republicans now have a majority in that chamber, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted March 17-20.

In its regular News IQ quick, Pew found that 80 percent correctly identified “No Child Left Behind,” 73 percent knew what Hillary Clinton did for a living and 71 percent could name the country where Gadhafi has ruled for more than 40 years.

But only 43 percent knew that Boehner was the top House Republican and just 38 percent were aware that the GOP had a majority in the House. Republicans in the survey were predictably the most aware of their good political fortune with 50 percent knowing Boehner was Speaker and 49 percent knowing their party was a majority. Forty-two percent of Democrats knew who Boehner was and 33 percent knew the GOP controlled the House. Forty-one percent of independents correctly identified Boehner’s job and 39 percent knew the Republicans had a House majority.

Nineteen percent thought that Democrat Nancy Pelosi was still the Speaker.

However, Boehner is slowly but surely getting better known. In November, Pew said 38 percent correctly identified Boehner as the speaker-in-waiting. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted in February said 37 percent did not know his name or were not sure of their opinion of him, which was an improvement over the 44 percent in that category last November right after the elections, and 52 percent in October 2010, just before Election Day.

via What Does John Boehner Do for a Living? Less Than Half in Poll Know « Poll Watch Daily.

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April 1, 2011 · 6:42 pm

Florida Republicans upset Democrat said ‘uterus’ on state House floor | The Raw Story

No Comment….

I’ll let this speak for itself…

For some Republican lawmakers in Florida, uterus is a dirty word.

During a debate over a bill that would prohibit governments from deducting union dues out of a worker’s paycheck last week, Florida state Rep. state Rep. Scott Randolph (D) argued that Republicans seem to only be against regulations when it comes to big business.

In his speech on the state House floor, Randolph even suggested that his wife could “incorporate her uterus” if it would stop the GOP from passing more restrictive abortion laws.

Republican leadership scolded the Democratic congressman, telling him that talk about body parts was unwelcome.

“The point was that Republicans are always talking about deregulation and big government,” Randolph told The St. Petersburg Times Thursday. “And I always say their philosophy is small government for the big guy and big government for the little guy. And so, if my wife’s uterus was incorporated or my friend’s bedroom was incorporated, maybe they (Republicans) would be talking about deregulating.”

“It’s not like I used slang,” he added.

He said Republicans told him they were concerned about young pages hearing the word.

“I think it’s a sad commentary about what we think about sex education in the state,” Randolph said.

via Florida Republicans upset Democrat said ‘uterus’ on state House floor | The Raw Story.

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April 1, 2011 · 6:14 pm

The Next America

Some very good news from the National Journal…

Not just for President Obama’s re-election, but for all of us…

I’m tired of rich white GOP men and crazy white GOP women- with an outrageous sense of entitlement -thinking they should run everything…

It’s time for more diversity in Government – and we sure won’t get that from the GOP.

The faster our government representation becomes multi-cultural, like our society is, the better.

The next America is arriving ahead of schedule. And it could rattle assumptions about the coming presidential election.

Last week’s release of national totals from the 2010 census showed that the minority share of the population increased over the past decade in every state, reaching levels higher than demographers anticipated almost everywhere, and in the nation as a whole. If President Obama and Democrats can convert that growth into new voters in 2012, they can get a critical boost in many of the most hotly contested states and also seriously compete for some highly diverse states such as Arizona and Georgia that until now have been reliably red.

“One of the strengths of our candidacy in 2008 is, we had a broader battlefield; what these numbers suggest is that those same opportunities are there [for 2012], and there are new ones to consider,” David Axelrod, who is expected to be Obama’s senior campaign strategist, told National Journal.

via NationalJournal.com – The Next America – Friday, April 1, 2011.

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March 31, 2011 · 8:09 pm

Suppose They Gave a Tea Party and No One Came…

Except mainly the press…

The Usual Suspects from Congress came and almost outnumbered the attendees….

Best news I’ve had all week…

This thing finally seems to be fading out- now if only the press will report that fact more…

This is a start.  From the Washington Post:

A sparse crowd of tea party activists gathered beneath the U.S. Capitol on Thursday to urge Congress to cut more spending from the current federal budget and to cheer on some of their favorite politicians, including Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Steve King (R-Iowa).

One organizer estimated that a couple of hundred protesters had gathered near the Robert A. Taft bell tower north of the Capitol at lunchtime Thursday. According to a media sign-in sheet, at least 50 of those present were journalists documenting the latest tea party rally in Washington.

via Tea party activists rally for deeper spending cuts at Capitol – The Washington Post.

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March 31, 2011 · 7:57 pm

USAID Administrator: GOP Budget Cuts Would Lead To The Deaths Of 70,000 Children Globally

Heartless…

From ThinkProgress.com:

As Foreign Policy’s Josh Rogin notes, one moment of the hearing provided a particularly startling fact about H.R. 1, the House Republicans’ bill for continuing appropriations to fund the government. USAID administrator Rajiv Shah explained to Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) that the agency was committed to its mission of battling global poverty, but that H.R. 1 would severely gut its ability to battle easily preventable deaths among children — and even lead to the deaths of as many as 70,000 kids globally. Dent, apparently unmoved by Shah’s testimony, immediately asked to change the subject:

SHAH: We estimate, and I believe these are very conservative estimates, that H.R. 1 would lead to 70,000 kids dying. Of that 70,000, 30,000 would come from malarian control programs that would have to be scaled back, specifically. The other 40,000 is broken out as 24,000 who would die because of a lack of support for immunizations and other investments, and 16,000 would be because of the lack of skilled attendants at birth. […] There’s a way to do this that doesn’t have to cost lives. […]

DENT: Can I just quickly change subjects?

via ThinkProgress » USAID Administrator: GOP Budget Cuts Would Lead To The Deaths Of 70,000 Children Globally.

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March 31, 2011 · 6:20 pm

Before Bachmann: The 5 craziest GOP candidates of the modern era – 2012 Elections – Salon.com

The GOP Presidential nominating process really is going to be a circus…

Or a freak show….

Your call…

Here is how Steve Kornacki at Salon.com calls it:

For respectable Republicans, the embarrassment potential may be at an all-time high. The party is a year away from picking its next presidential candidate and never in the modern era has it faced a vacuum like this.

Sure, the odds are still strong that the GOP will ultimately settle on a “harmless enough” general election candidate — someone sufficiently generic and inoffensive to ensure that the party doesn’t fall far below its natural level of support in the fall of 2012. But the road from here to the convention looks unusually — and, if you’re a Democrat, comically — rocky for Republicans.

The party’s base — which nominated several utterly unelectable candidates in several high-stakes Senate races last year — is in revolt, thirsting for purity and likely to accede to a Romney or Pawlenty nomination only with reluctance. Before then, it figures to be tempted by an atypically large collection of red meat-spouting long shots: Michele Bachman, Newt Gingrich, John Bolton, Rick Santorum, maybe even Sarah Palin or (why not?) Herman Cain — personally and politically polarizing extremists who validate a damaging stereotype of the Obama-era GOP. It’s not impossible that one of these ideologues will fare surprisingly well in one or more of the early nominating contests next year (most likely activist-dominated Iowa).

It is this possibility that makes 2012 potentially different from previous Republican contests, in which the party has generally — but not always — succeeded in keeping the embarrassments to a minimum. Here’s a look at the most embarrassing Republican candidates to be taken (at least somewhat) seriously by the media since 1980:

MORE:   Before Bachmann: The 5 craziest GOP candidates of the modern era – 2012 Elections – Salon.com.

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March 30, 2011 · 7:24 pm

North Carolina bill would prohibit cities from upgrading Internet access | The Raw Story

More proof that Time-Warner is Evil…

And more proof Republicans are owned by the Corporations that fund them…

The Republican-dominated North Carolina State Assembly this week approved a bill that would prohibit communities from upgrading their internet access, forcing individual municipalities into a private monopoly of managed broadband services by companies like Time Warner and Comcast.

Both firms have been restricting the amount of bandwidth users can consume, even though bandwidth itself is not a tangible, meter-able commodity.

The bill, which was heavily supported by telecom giant Time Warner, comes on the heels of several communities successfully launching their own fiber-optic broadband programs. One program in Wilson, North Carolina, called Greenlight, even features speeds up to 100 Megabits-per-second (Mbps) at a lower price than its corporate competitors.

That’s because Greenlight is a public utility, instead of a profits-making scheme, that places access and quality of service above harvesting dollars off customers. Instead of focusing on margins or how to impose fees on metered bandwidth use, they’re able to focus on simply providing the best the Internet has to offer.

Prior to the arrival of Greenlight, most Internet users in Wilson only had access to 7 Mbps speeds, at a much higher price than the public utility’s plans. For about the same price as the slower connection, Greenlight users get access to 20 Mbps speeds, with options to upgrade to 100M for about $150 a month.

However, in a Monday night vote, North Carolina assemblymen voted 81-37 to bring that to a halt, banning any other communities from upgrading their own connections and forcing them to continue patronizing private providers.

Currently-existing community broadband services like Greenlight, which five North Carolina communities have already set up, would not be affected should the bill clear the state senate.

The cities of Asheville, Bladenboro and Momeyer have all passed resolutions condemning the statewide bill.

via North Carolina bill would prohibit cities from upgrading Internet access | The Raw Story.

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March 30, 2011 · 7:10 pm

Poll: Americans Cooling on Tea Party – POLITICO.com

I knew people would eventually get tire of these lunatics….

Now, if only the press will recognize and accurately report that they are just a fringe group of Republicans…

From Jennifer Epstein at Politico.com

 

The tea party might be running out of steam.

The approval rating for the 2-year-old movement fell to 32 percent in a CNN/Opinion Research corporation poll released Wednesday, the lowest it’s been since CNN first polled on the tea party in January 2010.

Forty-seven percent of Americans, meanwhile, said they have an unfavorable view of the movement, a higher negative percentage than ever. An additional 7 percent said they’d never heard of the movement, and 14 percent said they had no opinion.

In December, 37 percent of the sample surveyed by CNN said they view the tea party favorably, while 43 percent said they view it unfavorably. The group’s favorability rating hovered at36 percent to 38 percent throughout 2010.

The biggest drop in the tea party movement’s favorability came among people who make less than $50,000 a year. In October, 30 percent in that income group said they had unfavorable views of the tea party. Now, 45 percent say the same.

via Poll: Americans cooling on tea party – Jennifer Epstein – POLITICO.com.

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March 30, 2011 · 7:05 pm

Freshman GOP Congressman Duffy Complains About His Congressional Salary…

Poor guy…

Just can’t scrape by on $174,000 a year…

Like I’ve repeatedly said, these guys in Washington live in a different world…

Duffy was asked about his pay by a constituent who said he had taken a job as a bus driver when his work as a builder dried up, and that his wife – a schoolteacher – would be taking a pay cut under the state’s new budget plan.

“I have six children and I’ve gone for roughly seven months with six kids and no paycheck,” Duffy replied, referring to the period when he left his job as Ashland County district attorney during the 2010 election campaign. “It was worth it for me to do that. I believed in what I was doing.”

Duffy told listeners he had cut his congressional office budget and didn’t vote on his own salary — “I got there on Jan. 5” — and that his federal health care and pension benefits are not nearly as good as they were when he worked for the state of Wisconsin. He described state benefits as “gold-plated.”

“The benefits that were offered to me as a congressman don’t even compare to the benefits that you get as a state employee. I just experienced that myself. They’re not nearly as good,” said Duffy.

“But $174,000 — that’s … three times what I make,” said the constituent. Someone else at the listening session asked if Duffy would vote to cut his salary, according to a recording of the event.

“I have no problem (with that). Let’s have a movement afoot. I walked into the job six weeks ago … And I can guarantee you, or most of you — I guarantee that I have more debt than all of you. With six kids. I still pay off my student loans. I still pay my mortgage. I generally use a minivan … I’ve got one paycheck. So I struggle to meet my bills right now. Would it be easier for me if I get more paychecks? Maybe, but at this point I’m not living high on the hog,” said Duffy. “Can everyone do more with less? Absolutely.”

Democrats accused Duffy of griping about his salary. State Democratic chair Mike Tate said in a statement, “Poor Hollywood Sean Duffy. He only makes four times the median family income in Wisconsin.”

via House freshman Duffy tells constituents “he’s not living high on the hog” on congressional pay – JSOnline.

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March 29, 2011 · 8:09 pm

My Thoughts: Life’s Great Mysteries

Just some random wonderings….

  1. Why does Jennifer Anniston still have a career?  Or does she?  Why is she in the news constantly?  Has she ever had a hit movie?  Has she really done anything since that TV series went off the air years ago and Angelina stole her husband?
  2. Is Katherine Heigl the next Jennifer Anniston?
  3. Does anyone really think Tom Cruise and John Travolta are straight?  And who cares besides the Church of Scientology…
  4. Speaking of John Travolta, why do so many movie stars wear such obvious toupees?  Do they really think they are fooling anyone?
  5. Is Meryl Streep getting all those great roles for older women not just because she is a great actress, but because she is the only actress in Hollywood, over 30, who hasn’t had a facelift or been botoxed to death?
  6. Has anyone really ever heard  Britney Spears sing or is she just a mentally unstable dancing lip-stinker?
  7. Is there anything Anne Hathaway can’t do-besides host the Oscars?
  8. How did “Crash” beat “Brokeback Mountain” for the Best Picture Oscar?  Does anyone remember “Crash” besides the entire city of LA who was in it?  Oh, that’s how it won…
  9. Are there any young female “stars” today equal in style and mystique to Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly? Or in talent to Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn and Meryl Streep?  Why not?
  10. Who really cares about Lindsey Lohan?
  11. Does anyone really think Social Security is bad?
  12. Why don’t Democrats fight for their core beliefs and Republicans not have any?
  13. How come the Religious Right still supports Republican candidates who have had two or three marriages and cheated on their wives and husbands?
  14. Does anyone really think Corporations and the Rich should not pay taxes in proportion to their incomes?
  15. What ever happened to the social contract theory?
  16. Why do people wear flip-flops in New York City?
  17. How does Michelle Bachmann keep getting re-elected?
  18. Is watching Fox News a sign of or a cause of Alzheimer’s Disease?
  19. Why does anyone think their life is so important or interesting that they have to text their friends during a live theatrical performance?
  20. Do people really think lighted cell phones are invisible when texting in theatres and really don’t bother anyone?
  21. What makes anyone without a uterus think they have a voice in the abortion debate?
  22. Are commercials dumber and more crass now due to societal change or only because the smart people don’t watch TV anymore?
  23. Will television really be relevant in 10 years or will it be replaced by the internet.
  24. Will people give up the Internet because it has as many commercials as television?
  25. Why are pharmaceutical companies allowed to advertise controlled substances on TV?
  26. Does anyone really think, after all these years, we are winning the “war on drugs” by simply locking everyone up?
  27. Why aren’t there more white people in prison for financial crimes that wrecked the economy?
  28. If the Supreme Court thinks Corporations are people, then why aren’t they taxed at the individual tax rates and rules?
  29. Why does anyone believe anything any politician says anymore?
  30. Is Debbie Reynolds ever going to retire?

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