tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56721418365443719962024-02-19T00:32:46.530-08:00Portside PoliticsA look at politics, viewed from the left by an every day citizen.Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.comBlogger308125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-21080037185468601732013-01-27T19:11:00.000-08:002013-01-28T07:24:04.034-08:00David Rove Gregory Taking Ayn Rand Ryan SeriouslyRep. Paul Ryan (Wis.) said today that if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were president, the nation's fiscal crisis would have been averted. “Look, if we had a Hillary Clinton presidency, if we had Erskine Bowles as chief of staff of the White House or president of the United States, I think we would have fixed this fiscal mess by now," Ryan said to NBC's David Gregory on "Meet the Republicans. These guys are hilarious! A couple days ago they're blaming her for Benghazi, now they think she's a magician. <br />
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He went on to say, “We have to expand our appeal to more people and show how we'll take the country's founding principles and apply them to the problem of the day, solutions to fix our problems. We have to show our ideas are better at fighting poverty, better at solving health care, how our ideas are better at solving problems that people experience in their daily lives. And that's a challenge we have to rise to, and I think we're up for it."<br />
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Who is he kidding? The American people saw what he and the Republicans had to offer in November and soundly rejected it, except for those who actually believe Fox is real news. They want to appeal to more people? Really? By jamming a transvaginal ultrasound probe up a woman’s privates when she seeks a legal procedure. By trying to prevent minorities from voting? By passing laws where discriminating against gay people is ok. Republicans want to fight poverty? How, by putting more people in poverty so they can lower the threshold of what's called poverty? By crushing unions with right-to-work for less, thereby lower everyone’s standard of living. They want to solve healthcare? By repealing the Affordable Care Act, voucherizing Medicare, privatizing Social Security and raising the retirement age so you’ll be dead before you get to use any of those programs. He claims they’re better at problem solving. Considering he and 16 other Republicans met on the night of President Obama’s first inauguration night, to plan on how they would destroy his presidency, his words run shallow.<br />
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Here's the deal, if Hillary runs in 2016, I'm with her. However, if the Teathugs still have power in the House or Senate, we're still screwed. The right wing wants to destroy the New Deal, the Great Society and the ACA, widely known as Obamacare. They will not be satisfied until we have given every last dime that we’ve worked for to the billionaires who are pulling the strings in Washington. I do not see Hillary adopting Paul <em>Ayn Rand</em> Ryan's plan which will ensure America’s seniors are in poverty, die young, eat cat food and end up homeless.<br />
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Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-77461319629024642012013-01-25T17:02:00.000-08:002013-01-28T17:10:48.624-08:00Jindal Said What?!Who is Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal kidding? Last night at the Republican National Committee he said, the GOP "must stop being the stupid party" This is a man concerned about how their positions are stated, not what they are stating. He complains about inartful words by candidates such as Todd Akin who said in regards to abortion, "If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." Or Richard Murdoch and his, "I struggled with it myself for a long time but I came to realize that life is that gift from God and I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen." Here's the thing, Jindal agrees with them, he just hasn't said so as publicly. He signed bills to intimidate women seeking abortions and compared women who have gotten abortions to criminals! The GOP doesn't seem to get it. It's their messsage, not how they say it.
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Here's some other things about Jindal to note considering he wants his party to stop being the stupid party: He permits Louisiana schools to teach creationism on the taxpayer's dime. While more and more Americans, including Republicans are getting comfortable with gay relationships, he allows state employees to be fired for being gay. Louisiana has the third highest uninsured rate in the country, yet he refuses to provide health care for Louisiana’s poorest. He seeks to dramatically cut taxes for the wealthy and increase taxes for everyone else. Under his plan, the bottom 80 percent of Louisianans in the income distribution would see a tax increase from repealing the personal and corporate income taxes and replacing them with a higher sales tax. The poorest 20 percent of taxpayers, those with an average income of $12,000, would see an average tax increase of $395, or 3.4 percent of their income while those in the top one percent would on average get a tax cut of $25,423.
And Piyush Jindal is what passes for an intellectual in today's GOP. In case you are wondering, Piyush decided he wanted to be called "Bobby" after the youngest Brady Bunch boy. True story.Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-45699290164134890822013-01-04T16:59:00.000-08:002013-01-06T08:13:44.429-08:00Frank Requesting To Fill Kerry's Seat TemporarilyBarney Frank has admitted he would like to fill John Kerry’s seat in Massachusetts until a special election takes place in late spring or early summer. Frank retired after a 32-year term in the House of Representatives on Thursday and doesn’t wish to run for election. He said on the MSNBC show “Morning Joe” that he had changed his mind about staying out of politics because of the upcoming votes about taxes, spending and the debt ceiling. He's watching the Republicans already talking about taking the country hostage once again to force their austerity measures on us. Frank's reliably liberal vote in the Senate would drive John McCain and Lindsay Graham absolutely crazy. In the House he championed the overhaul of financial institutions resulting in landmark legislation, the Dodd-Frank Consumer Protection Act. He would join newly elected Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the fight for the regulation of banks. Warren is an advocate of pro-consumer banking regulations. Gov. Deval Patrick will someone to fill the vacancy created by Kerry’s nomination to be Secretary of State. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, 32, grandson of Robert F. Kennedy was elected to fill Frank’s seat in the House. Another name mentioned for the temporary position is Vicki Kennedy, wife of the late Ted Kennedy. I like the idea of Frank. Not only would it drive Republicans up the wall, he knows his way around DC and will be a strong and vocal proponent of the Democratic agenda.<br />
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Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-16751693745219613592013-01-03T15:30:00.000-08:002013-01-04T17:06:53.794-08:00Elizabeth Warren Sworn in as Massachusetts First Female SenatorToday was a great day to be a liberal from Massachusetts! Elizabeth Warren reclaimed the Liberal Lion's seat from placeholder Scott Brown on November 6 with an eight point cushion and we couldn't be happier. At the Democratic National Convention, Ms. Warren accurately stated, "Wall Street C.E.O.’s — the same ones who wrecked our economy and destroyed millions of jobs — still strut around Congress, no shame, demanding favors and acting like we should thank them." The new Senator from Massachusetts will get a seat on the Senate Banking Committee, much to the chagrin of Wall Street. It must also be noted that that man she handily defeated was Wall Street's favorite son in his two year stint as Ted Kennedy's replacement. Don't get me wrong, I think Brown is going to be the equivalent of having gum on your shoe, never going away. There's not a doubt in my mind that he will run for future Secretary of State, Sen. John Kerry's Senate seat and again, it will be a two year gig. Here's the difference, this time national Democrats are paying attention. So far, only Rep. Ed Markey has thrown his name into the ring, but the <span class="name">Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC)</span> says they are ready to strongly defend this seat...a lesson learned from the inept campaign AG Martha Coakley ran against Brown in 2009. And Brown has already started with the negative shots at Markey, so I'll take that as a sign he's running again. On election night, once Warren had been declared the winner, my first thought was, "I wonder if the Republicans who were so opposed to her being appointed to lead the agency she started, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, were regretting their short-sighted decision." At the end of the day, we have elected a warrior for the middle class and I couldn't be prouder of our state sending an unabashed liberal to Washington to fight the good fight for the people.<br />
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Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-29689043352042248782013-01-02T17:11:00.000-08:002013-01-02T17:11:53.766-08:00The GOP War on Women is Alive and WellDid these guys not read the elction results? After watching the GOP debacle with women over the past couple years, whether it be abortion, birth control or fair pay, it's pretty clear: The GOP does not view women as capable of making their own decisions, but now what's even more clear, is they've taken steps to ensure women have no rights if they find themselves in a violent relationship.<br /><br />The John Boehner led Republicans have let expire, the Violence Against Women Act, first introduced in 1994 and reinstated without fanfare until the teabagger coalition got to town. What were their major complaints? It actually covered gays, immigrants, and Native Americans. Can you believe it? Those sneaky Democrats actually think that <em>those</em> women need protection too. Commie bastards! In case you're curious as to what it did, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), increased federal penalties for domestic violence and provided funding for groups and services that aid victims of domestic abuse. The bill was once a bipartisan sweet spot of being both tough on crime and oriented toward women's rights. But that was then. <br />
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In case the election blunders about legitimate rape and rape pregnancies being a gift from God, binders full of women, etc... didn’t clue you in to the GOP’s gender issues, this should. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the Democratic point person on VAWA, called the move “inexcusable” in a statement. “But this seems to be how House Republican leadership operates.”<br />
Read more at <a href="http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/01/02/16305284-house-gop-blocks-violence-against-women-act?lite">MaddowBlog</a><br />
Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-60226891146832112762013-01-01T16:36:00.000-08:002013-01-02T16:46:39.886-08:00No Cliff Hanger AfterallI have to say, I'm not sure how to feel about the so-called "fiscal cliff" agreement. As someone pretty far to the left, I have to drag my pragmatic side out of the moth balls once in a while. Here's what's been rolling through my brain:
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I'm not particularly concerned that the agreement went from income above $250K to $400K on individuals. Would I have preferred the $250K?. Sure. However, we got personal exemptions knocked back to those making above $250K. The estate tax was a joke. Republicans won. Their top rate went from 35% to 40%, after the first $5M. Big whoop. Capital gains and dividends went from 15% to 20%. Another GOP win. They were set to go back to 39.6% The alternative minimum tax was a Democratic win. The middle class is protected from getting jacked on it moving forward. It was originally designed to ensure that the wealthy did not avoid owing taxes by using loopholes. We do have a five year extension on expansions of the child tax credit, the earned income tax credit, and an up-to-$2,500 tax credit for college tuition. Also extended for one year is the accelerated "bonus" depreciation of business investments in new property and equipment, a tax credit for research and development costs and a tax credit for renewable energy such as wind-generated electricity. Long term unemployed got a one year extension, which was one I was concerned about. I guess it's a win for Democrats, but not a strong one as we'll still have a GOP led House a year from now. I'm not unemployed, however if you can't find a job, you end up on the street. The GOP thinks someone who lost a $75K per year job should just pick up a couple shifts at Walmart or McDonalds and all their problems will be solved. Well, not if you have a mortgage. The Social Security payroll tax cut is a short term loss for workers, but at the same time, if we're not paying in now, it won't be there when we retire. And no, I don't believe for a minite Social Security is in trouble. It's biggest problem is that's where most of our borrowing has come from and the DC politicians do not want to pay it back...excluding Bernie Sanders.
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Here's what I really don't like. Democrats did not get the debt ceiling raised in this deal...for at least two years. We are going to be going through all this baloney again in 2 or 3 months. President Obama says he will not negotiate with the hostage takers again, but his track record says otherwise. We'll see soon enough. I was actually ok with going over the cliff as it was the only way to cut the damn over-bloated military budget. Now we're going to have to listen to Republicans, led by John McCain and Lindsay Graham insist that the military can not be touched , but we need to decimate Social security and Medicare. I'm worried about wobbly kneed Democrats buying into it.Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-90146464456601931422012-06-23T12:55:00.000-07:002012-06-23T12:55:52.514-07:00Real Time with Bill Maher Overtime 6-22-12<object height="288" width="512"><param name="movie" value="http://www.hbo.com/bin/hboPlayerV2.swf?vid=1266006"></param><param name="FlashVars" value="domain=http://www.hbo.com&videoTitle=Ep. 253: June 22, 2012 - Overtime&copyShareURL=http%3A//www.hbo.com/video/video.html/%3Fautoplay%3Dtrue%26vid%3D1266006%26filter%3Dreal-time-with-bill-maher%26view%3Dnull"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src=http://www.hbo.com/bin/hboPlayerV2.swf?vid=1266006 FlashVars="domain=http://www.hbo.com&videoTitle=Ep. 253: June 22, 2012 - Overtime&copyShareURL=http%3A//www.hbo.com/video/video.html/%3Fautoplay%3Dtrue%26vid%3D1266006%26filter%3Dreal-time-with-bill-maher%26view%3Dnull" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="512" height="288"></embed></object><div><a href="http://www.hbo.com/video/video.html/?autoplay=true&vid=1266006&filter=real-time-with-bill-maher&view=null" title="Ep. 253: June 22, 2012 - Overtime">Ep. 253: June 22, 2012 - Overtime</a></div>Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-79214592017227248232012-06-18T17:33:00.000-07:002012-06-18T17:33:43.934-07:00Lisa Koch Sings ‘Hands Off My Clam’In a variation of the 1960′s hit country song “Stand By Your Man,” singer and comedian Lisa Koch tells the Republican Party to keep their “hands off my clam” in an incredibly funny video. The musical parody makes reference to Republican-led efforts to restrict abortion rights and their opposition to bills like the Paycheck Fairness Act. “Hands off my clam, my uterus, and ova,” she sang in this video recently uploaded to YouTube. “Yes, we need birth control, because you won’t wrap your pickle.” She also presents her own variation on “If I Only Had a Brain” from <em>The Wizard of Oz</em>.“I’d defund contraception, say the hell to sex prevention, cuz there’s Jesus in my heart,” she sang. “I would vote against gay marriage, and fags I would disparage, but lesbians — well, I like to watch them on porn.”<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/heXZTMHG88Y" width="420"></iframe>Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-78154093081397198572012-05-18T20:20:00.000-07:002012-05-18T20:25:48.807-07:00New U.S. Data Shows More Ethnic Babies Than WhitesSeems like all the anti-abortion, anti-contraception bills being drafted in red states and even the Republican controlled do nothing congress saw this coming and are trying to take proactive measures so that white remains the dominant race. Why do I say that? Statistically speaking, white women have more abortions than minorities. Turning women into nothing more than powerless fetus incubators for men is just a bonus for the radical right.
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<i>In an historic milestone, the U.S. for the first time has more minority or mixed-race kids than non-Hispanic whites. </i>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">By Courtney Subramanian</span>
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It’s an historic milestone in the ongoing U.S. demographic shift: according to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were more black, Hispanic and other ethnic newborns than white births in 2011. The new figures make minorities the majority among America’s youth for the first time on record.
According to the data, just over half of all infants in the U.S. were minorities or of more than one race last year: 50.4 percent of babies younger than age 1, a jump from 49.5 percent in 2010. And 49.7 percent of children younger than age 5 belonged to a minority or were of mixed race, an increase from 49 percent the year before, according to the agency.
The nation’s growing diversity is a trend long established among demographers, but the latest census data illustrates how starkly it will change the face of America’s next generations. Most notably, Hispanic and Asian populations have swelled by more than 40 percent since 2000, compared to the 1.5 percent increase of non-Hispanic whites over the same time period. The white demographic is on its way to becoming a “majority minority”: it now only represents 63.4 percent of the U.S. population. “This is a fundamental tipping point signaling a change in our demographic structure for decades to come,” said William Frey, a demographer and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. The U.S. white population is projected to become the minority – an estimated 47 percent of the population – by 2050, according to a Pew Research Center forecast. A 2009 Census Bureau report predicts the shift will occur by 2042.
But an increase in minority newborns is not the only contributing factor to the shift; the non-Hispanic white population birth-to-death ratio is narrowing. Just 1,025 white children were born for every 1,000 who died last year compared to the 3,940 births to 1,000 deaths for all other minority groups, the Wall Street Journal reports. Minority women tend to start families younger and have more kids, with Hispanic women giving birth to an average of 2.4 babies compared to the 1.8 non-Hispanic white births, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.
The rapidly changing demographic underscores a nationwide political debate on race, immigration policy, poverty and the future of the country’s economy, one that’s even more pointed in this election year. But while some experts believe ethnic groups will maintain cultural differences among the formerly predominant white population, other demographers anticipate minorities to blend into the proverbial “melting pot.”
“If you go back 100 years, groups that are now considered part of the majority white population were perceived as minorities,” Jeffry Passel, a senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center, told the Washington Post. “Over time, we’ll change the way we perceive these categories.”Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-71412027672909335922012-03-16T07:09:00.000-07:002012-03-16T07:09:58.882-07:00President Obama's "The Road We've Traveled"“The Road We’ve Traveled” is an aggressively upbeat, 17-minute review of President Obama’s first term. The film streamed live online last night via the president’s savvy new-media reelection machine.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2POembdArVo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-59602550247367306862012-03-04T13:47:00.021-08:002012-03-05T06:56:19.167-08:00Peaceful Protestors Opposed to Virginia's Ultrasound Law Dragged AwayOn Saturday, a group of protesters gathered at the Virginia state capitol to protest the Republican war on women, which peaked last week when the state GOP faced a firestorm of criticism over the transvaginal ultrasound bill. Though the language has been toned down, the bill is still a violation of women’s rights and privacy.<br />
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Instead of being allowed to peacefully protest, riot police moved in, surrounded the group and dragged them away. After watching police brutality during the OWS protests, we're now getting to see a very similar activity starting to take place as womens rights groups are trying to stop this ongoing attack on womens long settled freedoms and rights in this country. It's very troubling that "To Serve and Protect" has become "To Silence and Intimidate." Not only is this a national embarrassment, but it emphasizes the importance of all Americans joining together to protect our constitutional rights. The video below is troubling.<br />
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hQXjsEGTeEU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-58227461320362636492012-03-03T15:56:00.015-08:002012-03-05T07:06:24.960-08:00Maddow Explains How Birth Control Works to LimbaughRachel Maddow pays close attention to Rush Limbaugh's smears of Sandra Fluke and realizes he thinks women have to take a pill every time they have sex. It's a rather long segment, if you want to skip the set-up of how one thing lead to another, go to about the 7 minute mark. Then at about the 14 minute mark is when Rachel really starts to tear into Rush's ignorance. It's quite amusing, yet it's somewhat sad that it took 3 days for anyone to point it out.<br />
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<object width="420" height="245" id="msnbca7f62" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0"><param name="movie" value="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" /><param name="FlashVars" value="launch=46610339&width=420&height=245" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><embed name="msnbca7f62" src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" width="420" height="245" FlashVars="launch=46610339&width=420&height=245" allowscriptaccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object><p style="font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 420px;">Visit msnbc.com for <a style="text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;" href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com">breaking news</a>, <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032507" style="text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;">world news</a>, and <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032072" style="text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;">news about the economy</a></p>Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-2244829137705801852012-03-01T14:28:00.025-08:002012-03-05T07:22:25.512-08:00The Rude Pundit on Andrew Breitbart's DeathThis is one of those cases where if you've got nothing good to say, remain silent. So I will. However, "The Rude Pundit" is wired a bit differently.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">by Lee Papa, aka The Rude Pundit </span><br />
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<strong>Andrew Breitbart in Hell: A Fantasia:</strong><br />
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"Well," thought Andrew Breitbart in soul form as he descended while he watched Davy Jones ascend, "this is surprising." No, he wasn't a religious man on Earth, as he himself admitted, but surely, he thought, there was a chance for some reward at the end. In a moment of self-reflection, he pondered, "Arrogance. Pride. Yeah, those are sins, but they're kind of pussy sins."<br />
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Breitbart had been as surprised as anyone that he died. He had been retweeting every Twitter slight that crossed his feed, calling everyone he could a "putz," masochistically masturbating by slamming his dick with his iPad every time he answered one, when he had gone out to get some air and his heart just exploded. At first, he thought he was on an drug trip, it happened so fast; his soul popped out of him like a cork on a shaken champagne bottle. He saw his corporeal form on the ground and thought it was a wacky out of body experience, perhaps some flashback from the time he licked LSD off Michelle Malkin's ass cheeks, perhaps some residual peyote dream from that Western walkabout he did with Sean Hannity, when they got naked and rubbed each other with red dirt until they howled out that they wanted to kill the Indians again. Those thoughts quickly pushed out of his head as he arced and began to descend from the air and into the filthy ground below. "Fuck, I had a post to finish where I called the President a rape-enabler" was his last thought as he went underground.<br />
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As he headed deeper and deeper, Breitbart wondered what awaited him. He steeled himself to everything: barb-dicked demons raping his ass for eternity; the corpses of Reagan and Joseph McCarthy tearing off his balls and forcing him to swallow them, only to have them grow back again, with a row of dead right-wingers stretching as far as the eye could see, from Nixon to Attila the Hun, all waiting their turns to do the same; being made to exist in some liberal fantasyland, where Ted Kennedy reigned as god and everyone's wealth was shared and everyone was, oh, fuck, equal; or perhaps he'd just be fed shit, day in and day out, by the shovelful, as some kind of karmic retribution.<br />
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It was easy for Breitbart to think of such things for he had spoken ill of the dead on the day of their deaths before, like Kennedy and Michael Jackson. "Why do you grant a BULLY special status upon his death?" he had said about Kennedy, ha-ha. Fuck, he'd hoped he'd at least get to see what the fucking liberal bloggers were tweeting about. He'd love to tweet them back, and he was pretty sure his Blackberry would have reception in Hell. He'd love to find out how much loathing he inspired. He'd love to read the rants about Shirley Sherrod and ACORN, about New Black Panthers and James O'Keefe.<br />
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A man can do a lot of damage in 43 years, he knows, and he smiled about all the people he had fucked with, all the lives he had fucked up, all in the name of an ideology he saw as more important than compassion for anyone different from himself. "Shit," he thought, "better be careful. That's more pride."<br />
<br />
And, almost as much, he'd love to hear all the leftists tie themselves in knots to say something nice about him, about his family, about who he was a "person." That's even more awesome than the tears the right was no doubt shedding. Goddamn, he needed a drink. Goddamn, he wished he could mock them for their goodness as he had so many others.<br />
<br />
Suddenly, he entered into a light and found himself on the floor of a cold, brightly lit, all-white room with no doors or windows. He opened his mouth to call out, but no voice came out, not even a whisper or rasp. It was as if he had no vocal cords, no lungs, no means of making a sound. He didn't let himself freak out. He calmly walked the room to find an exit or crack. There were none. It was a solid box. Slowly, it began to dawn on him.<br />
<br />
"Not this," his lips formed. "Anything but this." Bring on the rape demons, bring on the zombie conservatives, the shit, Kennedy, any fate would be better. He beat on the walls. No sound. He stomped. No sound. He slammed his head into the wall. Not only was there no noise, but he didn't even feel pain. If he could have gotten sick, he would have vomited. He collapsed and waited.<br />
<br />
Eternity, it seemed, was going to be a long time.<br />
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http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2012/03/andrew-breitbart-in-hell-fantasia-well.htmlCaptainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-71781961294034683762012-02-29T19:25:00.002-08:002012-03-05T07:35:40.655-08:00Late middle-aged male experts agree: They know everythingAfter former car thief and suspected arsonist Darrell Issa's all-male review of womens contraception made his panel an absolute laughing stock, Funny or Die totally nails the absurdity! Issa unwittingly also managed to light a fire under any woman in this country who was indifferent to what happens in November. Good job, Darrell.<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="400" src="http://www.funnyordie.com/embed/251fa6410b" width="640"></iframe><br />
<div style="font-size: x-small; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left; width: 640px;"><a href="http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/251fa6410b/women-s-health-experts-speak-out" title="from Judd Nelson, Tim Meadows, Nick Offerman, Kurtwood Smith, Alex Fernie, Corey Stoll, Funny Or Die, Ray Wise, Brian Flaherty, Ally Hord, and BoTown Sound">Women's Health Experts Speak Out</a> from <a href="http://www.funnyordie.com/judd_nelson">Judd Nelson</a> <iframe allowtransparency="allowtransparency" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?app_id=138711277798&href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.funnyordie.com%2Fvideos%2F251fa6410b%2Fwomen-s-health-experts-speak-out&send=false&layout=button_count&width=150&show_faces=false&action=like&height=21" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; height: 21px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: middle; width: 90px;"></iframe><br />
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</div>Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-44676959382890137702012-02-28T20:45:00.000-08:002012-03-05T10:18:22.213-08:00Maddow Receives The John Steinbeck AwardOn February 6, 2012, it was announced that Rachel Maddow would receive the John Steinbeck Award. Thomas Steinbeck, son of the great John Steinbeck, had this statement in the release: “My father would have adored Rachel Maddow … Listening to Rachel Maddow is like listening to Walter Cronkite. We have that kind of trust in her. When I watch Rachel Maddow, I feel like I’m part of an alliance. I hope she’s in it for the long haul, because we really need her.”<br />
<br />
On Saturday evening, February 25, 2012 Rachel Maddow sat down at San Jose State University for a lengthy interview with Pat Thurston and a Q & A session before accepting the award. Previous recipients included Joan Baez, Bruce Springsteen, Arthur Miller, Studs Terkel and Garrison Keillor. Rachel is the third woman to receive the prestigious award and the first recipient under the age of 40.<br />
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The interview is broken into five parts.<br />
<br />
<strong>Part 1:</strong><br />
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<strong>Part 2:</strong><br />
<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0" height="245" id="msnbc1f8c8d" width="420"><param name="movie" value="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" /><param name="FlashVars" value="launch=46564109&width=420&height=245" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><embed name="msnbc1f8c8d" src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" width="420" height="245" FlashVars="launch=46564109&width=420&height=245" allowscriptaccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object><br />
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<strong>Part 3:</strong><br />
<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0" height="245" id="msnbc46cbe1" width="420"><param name="movie" value="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" /><param name="FlashVars" value="launch=46564134&width=420&height=245" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><embed name="msnbc46cbe1" src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" width="420" height="245" FlashVars="launch=46564134&width=420&height=245" allowscriptaccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object><br />
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<strong>Part 4:</strong><br />
<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0" height="245" id="msnbc748f1d" width="420"><param name="movie" value="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" /><param name="FlashVars" value="launch=46564155&width=420&height=245" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><embed name="msnbc748f1d" src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" width="420" height="245" FlashVars="launch=46564155&width=420&height=245" allowscriptaccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object><br />
<div style="background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: #999999; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin-top: 5px; text-align: center; width: 420px;">Visit msnbc.com for <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/" style="border-bottom: #999 1px dotted; color: #5799db !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;">breaking news</a>, <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032507" style="border-bottom: #999 1px dotted; color: #5799db !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;">world news</a>, and <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032072" style="border-bottom: #999 1px dotted; color: #5799db !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;">news about the economy</a></div><br />
<strong>Part 5:</strong><br />
<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0" height="245" id="msnbc3d8efe" width="420"><param name="movie" value="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" /><param name="FlashVars" value="launch=46564165&width=420&height=245" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><embed name="msnbc3d8efe" src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" width="420" height="245" FlashVars="launch=46564165&width=420&height=245" allowscriptaccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object><br />
<div style="background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: #999999; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin-top: 5px; text-align: center; width: 420px;">Visit msnbc.com for <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/" style="border-bottom: #999 1px dotted; color: #5799db !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;">breaking news</a>, <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032507" style="border-bottom: #999 1px dotted; color: #5799db !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;">world news</a>, and <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032072" style="border-bottom: #999 1px dotted; color: #5799db !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;">news about the economy</a></div>Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-83621873583915110372012-02-24T15:00:00.017-08:002012-03-05T16:26:48.066-08:00Elizabeth Warren Takes on the GOP War on Women<em>Today, Elizabeth Warren penned an op-ed for the Boston Globe.</em><br />
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<strong>Denying women coverage under any guise is a big step backward</strong><br />
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Maybe you saw the pictures. Five middle-age men seated at a congressional hearing table to discuss freedom of religion and contraception. And not a single woman was on the panel. Unbelievable. Do you think Congress would ever have a hearing on prostate cancer and only have women speak? Of course not.<br />
<br />
Washington is so out of touch with what’s happening to families across this country that the Senate is about to vote on an amendment that would allow any insurance company or any employer to claim a vague “moral conviction’’ as an excuse to deny you health care coverage. Here’s the really astonishing news: Senator Scott Brown is not only voting for this amendment, he is fighting to get it passed.<br />
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What does this mean? If you are married and your employer doesn’t believe married couples should use birth control, then you could lose coverage for contraception. If you’re a pregnant woman who is single, and your employer doesn’t like it, you could be denied maternity care. This bill is about how to cut coverage for basic health care services for women.<br />
<br />
Let’s be clear what this proposed law is not about: This is not about Catholic institutions or the rights of Catholics to follow their faith. President Obama has already made sure religious institutions will not be forced to cover contraception - at the same time that he has made sure women can get the health care they need directly from their health care insurers. Carol Keehan, the president and CEO of Catholic Health Association, said that Obama’s approach “protects the religious liberty and conscience rights of Catholic institutions.’’<br />
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I support Obama’s solution because I believe we must respect people of all religious faiths, while still ensuring that women have access to contraceptives. Brown has rejected this compromise. Instead, he has cosponsored a bill that will let any employer or any insurance company cut off contraceptive care, maternity care, or whatever they want, and leave women without coverage at all for this basic medical care.<br />
<br />
It is shocking that in 2012, Brown and his Republican colleagues would try to pass a law to threaten women’s access to birth control and other health care. Women all across this Commonwealth should have the right to use birth control if they want to. Giving corporate CEOs and insurance companies the power to dictate what health care women can and cannot get is just wrong. Those decisions should be up to women and their doctors.<br />
<br />
Our goal should be to ensure that everyone has access to affordable, high-quality health care. At a time when families are struggling with the costs of health care, we should be trying to strengthen our health care system - not finding ways to create loopholes that threaten the rights of women to obtain the health care they need.<br />
<br />
Massachusetts has been a leader in every aspect of health care: increasing access, reducing costs, and engaging in the innovations and research that make higher quality care better. We need to keep moving forward - not take a big step backward.Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-65440900340505385792012-02-23T23:55:00.022-08:002012-03-05T09:53:28.886-08:00Maddow and Pelosi Discuss Republicans Exclusion of WomenHouse Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi spoke with Rachel Maddow tonight to discuss the Republican war on women's health and contraception as well as the Republican field running for president.<br />
<br />
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<div style="background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: #999999; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin-top: 5px; text-align: center; width: 420px;">Visit msnbc.com for <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/" style="border-bottom: #999 1px dotted; color: #5799db !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;">breaking news</a>, <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032507" style="border-bottom: #999 1px dotted; color: #5799db !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;">world news</a>, and <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032072" style="border-bottom: #999 1px dotted; color: #5799db !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;">news about the economy</a></div>Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-78431422907296340922012-02-21T23:48:00.002-08:002012-03-05T08:54:48.052-08:00Yes Virginia, There is a Transvaginal ClauseProfessor Cynthia Tucker and Marjorie <span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}">Dannenfelser joined Chris Matthews' Hardball this evening where Dannenfelser essentially said mandated contraception coverage is wrong, but state mandated transvaginal rape is acceptable. Even women in the GOP have gone mad.</span><br />
<br />
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<div style="background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: #999999; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin-top: 5px; text-align: center; width: 420px;">Visit msnbc.com for <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/" style="border-bottom: #999 1px dotted; color: #5799db !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;">breaking news</a>, <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032507" style="border-bottom: #999 1px dotted; color: #5799db !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;">world news</a>, and <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032072" style="border-bottom: #999 1px dotted; color: #5799db !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;">news about the economy</a></div>Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-8206034246224467842012-02-17T16:16:00.000-08:002012-03-09T11:59:52.155-08:00Springsteen Discusses the Angry Patriotism at the Heart of 'Wrecking Ball'From <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/feb/17/bruce-springsteen-wrecking-ball"><span style="color: blue;">The Guardian</span></a><br />
<br />
Bruce Springsteen: 'What was done to my country was un-American'.
The Boss explains why there is a critical, questioning and angry patriotism at the heart of his new album Wrecking Ball.
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At a Paris press conference on Thursday night, Bruce Springsteen was asked whether he was advocating an armed uprising in America. He laughed at the idea, but that the question was even posed at all gives you some idea of the fury of his new album Wrecking Ball.
Indeed, it is as angry a cry from the belly of a wounded America as has been heard since the dustbowl and Woody Guthrie, a thundering blow of New Jersey pig iron down on the heads of Wall Street and all who have sold his country down the swanny. Springsteen has gone to the great American canon for ammunition, borrowing from folk, civil war anthems, Irish rebel songs and gospel. The result is a howl of pain and disbelief as visceral as anything he has ever produced, that segues into a search for redemption: "Hold tight to your anger/ And don't fall to your fears … Bring on your wrecking ball."
"I have spent my life judging the distance between American reality and the American dream," Springsteen told the conference, where the album was aired for the first time. It was written, he claimed, not just out of fury but out of patriotism, a patriotism traduced.
"What was done to our country was wrong and unpatriotic and un-American and nobody has been held to account," he later told the Guardian. "There is a real patriotism underneath the best of my music but it is a critical, questioning and often angry patriotism."
The tone is set from the start with the big, bombastic We Take Care of Our Own – a Born in the USA for our times – where the most sacred shibboleth of Ordinary Joe America is sung with mocking irony through clenched teeth by a heart that still wants it to be true. "From the shotgun shack to the Superdome/ There ain't no help, the cavalry stayed home." It is a typical Springsteen appeal to a common decency beyond the civil war he sees sapping America.
Like Born in the USA, which got pressed into service as the anthem of the first Gulf war, he's aware it has the potential to be hijacked by the angry right. But Springsteen says that to anyone who cares to listen to the lyrics, the message is clear.
"A big promise has been broken. You can't have a United States if you are telling some folks that they can't get on the train. There is a cracking point where a society collapses. You can't have a civilisation where something is factionalised like this."
Springsteen plunges into darker, richer musical landscapes in a sequence of breath-taking protest songs – Easy Money, Shackled and Drawn, Jack of All Trades, the scarily bellicose Death to My Hometown and This Depression with Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine – before the album turns on Wrecking Ball in search of some spiritual path out of the mess the US is in.
But it is also an ode to hard work, to the dignity it brings, and the blue-collar values he claims made America:
<i>"Freedom son's a dirty shirt
The sun on my face and my shovel in the dirt
A shovel in the dirt keeps the devil gone
I woke up this morning shackled and drawn" </i>
Asked where the fury of this lyric had come from, he talks movingly of his father who had been "emasculated by losing his job" in the 70s and never recovered from the damage to his pride. "Unemployment is a really devastating thing. I know the damage it does to families. Growing up in that house there were things you couldn't say. It was a minefield. My mother was the breadwinner. She was steadfast and relentless and I took that from her.
"Pessimism and optimism are slammed up against each other in my records, the tension between them is where it's all at, it's what lights the fire."
Hope is there. But it is a tempered hope. Land of Hope and Dreams is a plea for America's newest immigrants, those risking their lives to ride the trains up from central America. "This train … carries saints and sinners … losers and winners … whores and gamblers … Dreams will not be thwarted … Faith will be rewarded."
Springsteen, 62, says he is not afraid of how the album will be received in election-year America: "The temper has changed. And people on the streets did it. Occupy Wall Street changed the national conversation – the Tea Party had set it for a while. The first three years of Obama were under them.
"Previous to Occupy Wall Street, there was no push back at all saying this was outrageous – a basic theft that struck at the heart of what America was about, a complete disregard for the American sense of history and community … In Easy Money the guy is going out to kill and rob, just like the robbery spree that has occurred at the top of the pyramid – he's imitating the guys on Wall Street. An enormous fault line cracked the American system right open whose repercussion we are only starting to be feel.
"Nobody had talked about income inequality in America for decades – apart from John Edwards – but no one was listening. But now you have Newt Gingrich talking about 'vulture capitalism' – Newt Gingrich! – that would not have happened without Occupy Wall Street."
Having previously backed Obama, Springsteen says he would prefer to stay on the sidelines this time. "I don't write for one side of the street … But the Bush years were so horrific you could not just sit around. It was such a blatant disaster. I campaigned for Kerry and Obama, and I am glad I did. But normally I would prefer to stay on the sidelines. The artist is supposed to be the canary in the cage."
Obama hasn't done bad, Springsteen says. "He kept General Motors alive, he got through healthcare – though not the public system I would have wanted – he killed Osama Bin Laden, and he brought sanity to the top level of government. But big business still has too much say in government and there has not been as many middle- or working-class voices in the administration as I expected. I thought Guantanamo would have been closed but now, but he got us out of Iraq and I guess we will soon be out of Afghanistan."
The album is the last on which Clarence Clemons, the legendary saxophonist from the E Street Band, played on before he died last year. "When the sax comes up on Land of Hope and Dreams," Springsteen says, "it's a lovely moment for me."<br />
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• Wrecking Ball is released on 5 March via Columbia.Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-57888367220202338522012-02-15T18:00:00.000-08:002012-03-05T17:57:00.502-08:00Santorum's Nightmare Vision for AmericaI thought this was a very good look at Rick Santorum's vision for America. Be afraid.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>By Lawrence Davidson via Alternet</em></span><br />
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<em>Santorum's vision for America would combine a moralistic theocracy with free-market capitalism and perpetual war.</em><br />
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Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is a Republican presidential candidate who is fast coming to the fore. He won the Republican caucuses in Iowa (albeit by only 34 votes) in early January and in February won contests in Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota. So, as the question goes, who is this guy? Santorum is a self-styled “true conservative,” right-wing, Christian fundamentalist of Catholic background. In 2005,Time Magazine called him “one of America’s 25 most influential evangelicals.” That is still certainly true today.
Santorum believes that religious values (at least his religious values) should play a large role in shaping government policies. For those not sure what this means, Santorum has a list of examples:
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1. Santorum wants “a blanket ban on abortions.” The fact that the U.S. had this very same prohibition up until 1973, and the result was black-market abortions that killed not only fetuses by also lots of pregnant women, seems to have escaped the former senator’s attention.
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2. Santorum wants a ban on gay marriages. He would likely bring back antiquated anti-sodomy laws as well. “If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual [gay] sex within your home, then you have a right to bigamy, you have a right to polygamy, you have a right to incest, you have a right to adultery. You have a right to anything.”
When Santorum gets on the subject of homosexuality, one can’t help noting a tinge of hysteria, along with a generous helping of illogic and exaggeration. Santorum would probably try to ban other related activities, such as the use of contraceptives to prevent pregnancy. He certainly wants to get rid of Planned Parenthood.
What this adds up to is that when Santorum says religious values should play a greater role in government policy, he means that there should be lots of laws regulating your personal life, particularly your sex life. This is pretty typical of religious fundamentalists, particularly American Christian ones. They just can’t leave other people’s bedrooms alone.
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<strong>The Economist</strong>
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On the economic side of the ledger, Rick Santorum takes a slash-and-burn approach.
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1. There should be a $5 trillion cut in the federal budget (but defense spending would be held at present levels). In order to realize this, Santorum would do away with, greatly reduce or freeze the Environmental Protection Agency, healthcare reform and Medicaid, subsidies for housing, food stamps, job training, energy and education. He would “reform” Medicare and Social Security in draconian fashion and pass a balanced budget amendment.
One might agree that the present U.S. federal deficit verges on the insane and still find Santorum’s cure equally crazy. For instance, just about holding exempt defense and “security” spending — when combined they make up 20 percent of the budget and are notorious for waste, redundancy and corruption — makes no sense.
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2. According to Santorum, there should be an elimination of financial and other regulatory laws. This is true insanity. Regulation is the only thing that makes capitalism an enduring system. Eliminate it and you have financial crashes, dangerous sweatshop working conditions, falling wages and benefits, runaway corruption and theft and, ultimately, depression. That Santorum cannot understand this suggests that he has substituted a discredited free-market ideology for history.
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3. Santorum says that as a nation Americans should “live within our means” and if we do so “future generations will have a brighter future unburdened by oppressive debt and high taxation.” These are fine slogans, but in practice they probably spell eventual revolution in the streets.
If you reduce the debt by slashing expenditures Santorum-style while refusing to increase taxes, you will eliminate almost all of society’s safety nets. That means increasing poverty and all its attendant miseries. You will also make infrastructure maintenance much more difficult.
Someone should tell Mr. Santorum that the U.S. population is not over-taxed. Out of 62 industrialized countries, the U.S. ranks 28th in terms of its income tax rates. It is, of course, possible to over-tax a people to ruination. It is also possible to under-tax a people to ruination – to tax so low that you can’t assist the less fortunate or fix the pot holes and keep the bridges from collapsing.
If Santorum was to get his way the nation would not have his predicted “brighter future.” More likely it would be a future of more poor and more pot holes. That might well lead to disillusionment with the capitalist system among both the lower- and middle-classes. (Personally, I have no objection to such growing disillusionment. I would, however, like to minimize the suffering and violence that surely goes along with it.)
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<strong>Foreign Policy</strong>
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When it comes to foreign policy, Santorum is a warmonger plain and simple.
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1. As to Iran, Santorum would “work with Israel to determine the proper military response needed” to put a end to that country’s nuclear weapons program. It seems not to matter to the former senator that every U.S. intelligence agency that has ever investigated this issue has determined that there is no evidence that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program.
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2. As to Syria, Santorum would go after the strongman (Bashar al-Assad) “covertly or otherwise.” Does that mean that Santorum act-alikes at the helm of other nations could use the same logic to go after a U.S. president?
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3. As to Iraq, Santorum would “continue to stabilize Iraq” presumably by re-invading the country. This belies the fact that it was the American policy of draconian sanctions and ultimate invasion that destabilized Iraq in the first place.
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4. As to Afghanistan, Santorum would set no time lines or limit resources “in the war effort.” Yet, if al-Qaeda is as weakened as Washington claims, there seems to be little point in more war. If a stable and competent Taliban government reappears in Afghanistan, it is unlikely to invite future attacks by providing a haven for terrorist organizations. On the other hand, this on-going war is almost certainly providing a breeding ground for more terrorists.
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5. As to Islam, Santorum believes it is a religion that is “stuck in the seventh century.” With rare exception, such as Saudi Wahhabism, this is untrue. Actually, it is Rick Santorum who is stuck in the past. It is he who, like some political ecclesiastic, wants to regulate everyone else’s lives. If Mr. Santorum simply changed hats – from Christian to Islamic – he could be a Saudi cleric. Compared to people like him, most Muslims are much more tolerant and contemporary.
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6. As to Israel, Santorum takes an uncritically approving position on the Zionist state. This makes sense when you realize that Israel is essentially a religious state – a nation on the brink of becoming a theocracy, which is where Santorum presumably would like to steer the United States.
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Rick Santorum is a religious ideologue. He wants to turn the U.S. into a “faith-based” Christian country through the imposition of those “family values” he personally has decided are God-given. He believes that America’s Founding Fathers would agree because they were, supposedly, men of faith just like him.
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Quoting the Declaration of Independence to prove this point, Santorum reminds us that it says that people “are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.” From this he concludes that rights come from God and not from government. Government’s role is simply to implement and protect those divine rights.
The truth is that the man who penned the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson, was nothing like Rick Santorum. He wasn’t even a Christian. He was a Deist. Jefferson’s phrasing was meant to impress a wider world in an age when religion was interpreted in a more literal fashion than it is in today’s United States. Jefferson certainly did not mean for Americans to take the notion of God-given inalienable rights literally. After all, he was a slave-holder.
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The number of Americans who respond positively to Rick Santorum’s message is probably in the range of 20 percent. In terms of the Republican Party, they probably represent about one-third of the membership. Being ideologically driven, these people are motivated to vote. And, that is significant in a nation where voting turnout is traditionally low.
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So, Rick Santorum is certainly representative of a politically active part of the U.S. population – a dangerous, intolerant, noisy, in-your-face part. If we let him and his followers get their way, the result will be ever greater divisiveness and decline at home, and war abroad. That is a choice for the rest of us.Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-91937147281838188102011-12-23T21:48:00.000-08:002012-03-09T11:58:21.112-08:00Boehner Reads Polls, Caves on Payroll Tax Break ExtensionFaced with criticism from across the political spectrum and abandoned by Senate allies, House Republicans bowed to political reality Thursday and agreed to a two-month extension of a payroll tax cut for 160 million Americans. After promising to hold their breath, hoping to die and sticking a needle in their eye until they got further cuts to programs benefitting those in need, their bluff was called.
The tax break is backed by President Barack Obama, and was initially brought up as part of his job stimulation program. The break involves keeping payroll taxes down by 4.2 percent until February, continuing extended unemployment benefits and maintaining the present Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors. A similar deal was rejected by the Republican-dominated House of Representatives on Tuesday after being approved by the Senate. This time House Republicans supported the bill since their political suicide was pointed out to them by their wingnut collegues in the Senate. When Mitch McConnell becomes a voice of reason, you know you've really lost control of the conversation.Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-68447752894253234222011-10-12T06:48:00.000-07:002011-10-12T06:49:36.664-07:00Why Do Republicans Hate Americans?On the very day President Obama met with leaders of the business world to figure out how to put Americans back to work and all agreed that infrastructure is the key to our economic revival, exactly the key to Obama’s job plan, last night, the jobs bill was defeated because of yet another Republican filibuster. Every single Republican voted no. The 50 page report submitted to the president by this jobs council said there’s no market for anything they’re selling so they’d like to modernize our tunnels, railways, ports, dams, schools, airports, electric grids, water and waste water systems, and expanding our broadband networks. <br />
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The filibuster came as no surprise, that’s been the standard practice for the Republicans since this man was sworn in, but what I find upsetting is two Democrats joining them, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Jon Tester of Montana. From what I’ve read, Harry Reid had to do some serious arm twisting to get Claire McCaskill and Jim Webb to vote yes. What has happened to the Democratic Party? This was the party of the people. And while they’re not as egregiously obvious that they’re in the back pockets of the rich and the powerful, it’s clear that some of them are. As Bill Maher said on Rachel Maddow’s show last night, (not this clip) there are probably 40 good Democrats, but 13 who can’t be trusted to act as Democrats. <br />
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If the thousands of Americans protesting the corporate greed from coast-to-coast aren’t making a difference, I’m not sure anything can. I have to say, my stress level and depression are increasing as time moves on. I still have very high hopes for Occupy Wall Street and Occupy wherever, but I’m saddened that there are some Democrats who are more interested in their own jobs than 24 million unemployed Americans. All the 99% want is fairness. Basic fairness has been missing from our system for 30 years. This movement has more in common with the original Boston Tea Party than the racists with tri-cornered hats, carrying guns, screaming about the Muslim Marxist, Nazi from Kenya.<br />
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John Stanton of Roll Call discusses the vote with Rachel Maddow.<br />
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<object width="420" height="245" id="msnbc659e97" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0"><param name="movie" value="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" /><param name="FlashVars" value="launch=44868422&width=420&height=245" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><embed name="msnbc659e97" src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" width="420" height="245" FlashVars="launch=44868422&width=420&height=245" allowscriptaccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object><p style="font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 420px;">Visit msnbc.com for <a style="text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;" href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com">breaking news</a>, <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032507" style="text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;">world news</a>, and <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032072" style="text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;">news about the economy</a></p>*Rachel made the correction after the break to Stanton’s report where he misnamed Webb as a no vote instead of Tester.Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-80628879330249514162011-10-01T13:40:00.000-07:002011-10-01T15:39:00.924-07:00You Can't Bring Them BackWhat I’m about to write has been in my brain for many years. Frankly, my family has supplied enough drama to write a book; but this one, this one has never left me. Ten days ago, after Troy Davis was executed even though there was ample evidence suggesting he was not the man who killed police officer Mark MacPhail, my brain went back to 1975 after a pro-death penalty friend texted, “what if it was a member of your family that was killed” and I retorted that “it has been a member of my family.” I haven’t been able to shake it. I want to write a short story of an incident in my youth so people understand that this stuff happens in so many families. You can’t ever think, “no, not me, not us, it’s the others.” An eye-for-an-eye can never undo the damage.<br />
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In August of 1975, not too long after my 13th birthday, we got word that my aunt Vicki was dead. I believe she was 42 at the time. My uncle Sonny who was an alcoholic had thrown her down some stairs in a drunken fit. I now know he had always been physically abusive towards her and everyone looked the other way. Yet he had always been so nice to me. As a kid, I was a big baseball fan and loved the Red Sox. He gave me my first baseball glove. It was used and worn, but man I loved that thing. Carl Yastrzemski was my favorite player and he gave me this awesome picture of Yaz in his batting stance. Then after he went to a Sox game, came back with a glossy team photo of the Red Sox for me. He even gave me my first driving lesson on a tractor. He was my favorite uncle. I was totally unaware of the darkness.<br />
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Unlike most of my aunts, my aunt Vicki always said girls can do anything boys can do and I should do what makes me happy. She knew I wasn’t a girly girl from the start and she was totally cool with that, and never tried to encourage me to be someone I wasn’t. In fact, she encouraged my passions. I liked sports, I played with trucks and while I loved teddy bears, I hated dolls. And I liked to write. She used to read my lame little Red Sox game caps, she was the only one. Even my parents couldn’t be bothered. My funniest memory was her tying my socks together when I was little and me crying because I was not smart enough to just take them off! <br />
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I vaguely remember parts of a day so many, many years ago, so long before that dark August day. My aunt Vicki had showed up in her Ford Falcon at our house because Uncle Sonny had beaten her up again. I remember the black eye. I remember her crying and holding herself up against our refrigerator before I was scooted away. Next thing I knew, she was gone. My father didn’t want to let her stay, didn’t want to get involved. My mother has always been subservient of his demands, even though I know now that she regrets not taking a stand, it’s too late. Just so you know, my father has never been physically abusive, but emotionally, well that’s another story. The thing that changed for my mother was that as I hit my teens, I fought back to his sexist, subservient tone and while it didn’t really help me as I was who I was, I think it helped her. Yet, to this day, she somehow remembers the days of her youth when women stood with their men no matter what as a positive. But, I digress…<br />
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I’m not sure how often I saw Aunt Vicki after that incident as I’m sure she didn’t feel welcome or supported. As an adult, I can only wonder how my parents support might have helped her. I also wonder, with her encouragement if I would’ve pursued my dreams of journalism, as she was the only one who believed in me and encouraged me to swim upstream when needed. I wanted to be a writer, a sports writer at the time. Who knows, with encouragement, maybe I’d be Jackie McMullen today. My parents didn’t believe in college. I went back to school when I was in my 30’s, but by then felt journalism had passed me by so I jumped on the computer technology train where I serve today.<br />
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So here I am many years later putting pieces of my life together and thinking about the “Butterfly Effect.” My Uncle Sonny did not deserve the death penalty. He was ill. There were at least two sides to him as I’ve stated. He wasn't always an abusive drunk. Back then, especially in a small farming community, getting help was still a sign of weakness. That said, he killed my aunt. He was only sentenced to seven years, served six and was let out on good behavior. His pattern repeated. But since I don’t have all the details, I won’t bother with speculation. However, I can say first hand that anyone who wants to cut spending for addiction is foolish.<br />
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I guess in the end, capital punishment is playing God. I personally would not be comfortable sending someone to death. Yet, I can also understand certain cases, like the Petit case in Connecticut where the perpetrators couldn’t possibly be more evil, and if the state executes them, no one will care. This is such a complex issue, but it’s becoming more and more clear that innocents are being executed with shoddy evidence or in Troy Davis’ case, no evidence; we must decide what kind of society we want to be. No matter what they’ve said publicly, officer MacPhail’s family will now be living with, “what if he wasn’t the one.” This stuff stays with you forever, it will never make more sense tomorrow than it did yesterday. Meanwhile, you’ve taken another life. Will you feel better about your loss? I doubt it.Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-84127203694555501832011-09-07T13:46:00.000-07:002011-09-07T13:46:55.245-07:00Who writes this stuff, indeed!<em>As usual, my writing fell off throughout summer so hopefully with the change in season comes a rebirth of writing out my thoughts. Today a friend and co-worker brought in a column from the local paper that was written by a Northampton, MA M.D., a right winger. She was incensed at the contemptuous tone and narcissim he displayed. First of all, I want to share the link so you can read what this fella had to say:</em> <span style="color: blue;"></span><a href="http://gazettenet.com/2011/09/06/who-writes-this-stuff?SESS395b6d608dc2a8540fdba061d636c5e9=gsearch"><span style="color: blue;">Jay Fleitman: Who writes this stuff?</span></a><span style="color: blue;"> </span><em>While I share Sandra's passion, I thought, "what the heck, this deserves a response." I think it's important to disclose I've never responded to a newspaper column before, but living in the Pioneer Valley in western Massachusetts, I haven't had much cause for rebuttal. Below, is what I will be submitting to the Daily Hampshire Gazette this evening.</em><br />
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I always find it entertaining when a so-called “conservative” such as Jay Fleitman accuses the left of the very things the right has been up to for years. He writes an entire article without any facts to back up his statements. Let’s look at his “points” one at a time.<br />
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1) I’m going to start with his “left wing think tanks” comment. While I know the right wing loves to point at George Soros, he is not organizing retreats like the ones the multi-billionaire Koch Brothers are. Every few months, the Koch’s arrange a little getaway where Republican governors convene to discuss how to crush the working class and further enrich the affluent. Do you think all the anti-union, anti-woman, anti-voting rights policies flooding out of the far right are coincidence? Really, do you? Never mind Rove’s groups, the Chamber of Commerce and any other easily searchable extremely organized "right wing think tank." Try <em>the Google</em> if you doubt this. <br />
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2) Then he denies the Tea Party and Republicans want to protect the rich and uses the U.S. corporate tax rates as an example of how tough it is for companies operating within our borders. What difference does it make what the tax rates are when the corporate loopholes in the tax codes allow companies like BOA and GE to pay no taxes at all? Meanwhile the current crop of GOP politicians are on record saying “entitlements” must be cut while Bush’s tax cuts that mainly benefit the top 2% must be sustained. Let me add that, using the word “entitlements” as a dirty word is a word play by the right to make it sound like these are freebies going out to the undeserving. All of us have paid into them our entire working lives so yes, we are entitled to them. Privatizing Social Security, turning Medicare into a voucher program and cutting funding to Medicaid does indeed end these programs, it does not “reform” them, another word play. Kind of like “job creators” has now replaced “the wealthy” in right wing lingo.<br />
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3) Much of our ills are Bush’s fault, at least those that aren’t Reagan’s. Reagan’s slashing of taxes in the 80’s coupled with massive deregulation was the beginning of the end of a balanced society where everyone could live the American Dream. His policies began the wealth disparity that we suffer from today. Not since the 20’s have we had such a wealth disparity, which led to the Great Depression. Check your local library where you’ll find some fascinating history books. Those who don’t learn by history are doomed to repeat it. GWB inherited a budget surplus that would have allowed us to be debt free in approximately 10 years, but instead decided a budget surplus meant we were paying too much in taxes, so in June of 2001, he signed his first tax cut. Then September 11 happened. Instead of rescinding the already signed tax cut, he started not one, but two wars, one which was started on the idiotic premise of non-existent WMD— “a web of misinformation designed to distract the minds of America with implausible silliness.” Then in 2003 at a time of war, signed another tax cut! Never in our history have we been at war and authorized tax cuts, it has been quite the opposite actually, including Republican presidents. Now the debt and deficit has exploded, but instead of undoing as much of Bush’s policies as possible, the right runs around screaming the sky is falling and tries convincing Americans through their corporate mouthpiece Fox News, that it’s their unemployed neighbors fault.<br />
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As far as Obama, I’m a supporter, but not a cheerleader. His reach across the aisle philosophy is a failure. It made sense early on, but after a few months, it should’ve been evident their game plan was to follow Rush Limbaugh’s playbook. How he ever thought reasoning with people who publicly declared their number one goal was to make him a one term president is beyond me. (By the way, those are Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s words, not mine.) And anyone who watched unemployment benefits held hostage last winter in exchange for an extension of the Bush era tax cuts, or the debt ceiling debacle a couple months ago, with the Republicans demanding cut after cut without any revenue or the very fact that they ran on jobs and have not produced one single bill to address that dire need in this country, knows which party supports which group of constituents. (By the way, I am fine with all Bush era tax cuts going away if that’s what it takes to grow our economy.)<br />
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4) The size of the financial stimulus has been a matter of debate since its inception, not since last week. However, since Fox News doesn’t report anything factual, perhaps the writer was unaware of the fact that many economists questioned the size of the stimulus from the very start, as well as the wisdom of making 40% of it…tax cuts! Maybe the stimulus failed to keep unemployment under 8% (which was Paulson’s prediction, not Obama’s by the way), but it softened what would have undoubtly been a bigger blow to a sluggish economy. Ask people holding the three million jobs it saved if it was worth it.<br />
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5) Nobody thinks the Republican candidates are “political dwarfs”; however several of them are insane. Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann, for example believe in Christian Dominionism, which is frightening in a country which was founded by people fleeing another country who was mandating a state run religion. Gingrich and Santorum? Ok I’ll give it up and call them political dwarfs. Romney and Huntsman are legitimate contenders being overshadowed by the lunatic fringe. They could win a general, but will not get the nomination because the tea party wants state run religion, they do not believe in science and applaud austerity. <br />
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6) And to say there is no racism in the tea party would be comical if you didn’t so hardily believe it. Which isn’t to say that every tea partier is a racist. Sorry none of us are saying that, no matter how badly you and right wing talking heads want to believe it. I’m glad your experiences have been positive, but again, use <em>Google</em>, or <em>Bing</em> if you prefer, if you don’t believe racism does exist within the group, and no, they are NOT liberal plants to make the tp’ers look bad, so don’t even use that tired argument. You’re living in a progressive state, where even though we may have disagreements, people are generally respectful of others. Not every part of the country behaves as such.<br />
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What your writing displayed was “intellectual and political bankruptcy” by also asserting that this movement was “spontaneously” started by a bunch of concerned Americans. To actually believe that and peddle it as truth is laughable. Who’s paying for the fancy tour buses with the $13K wraps? Who’s reserving the fancy hotels? Finally, the petty little liberal/progressive swipe doesn’t hold any water either. Conservatives have tried to redefine what a liberal/progressive is by calling us every negative incantation that Fox viewers can easily remember. Trust me; it IS cool to be a liberal. Read JFK’s eloquent quote and tell me what he got wrong. “Yes indeed the right needs some new material.”Captainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04353570827663779044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672141836544371996.post-40534230764224876702011-08-24T20:26:00.000-07:002011-08-25T16:36:40.907-07:00Most Unpopular Group in America Dictating Republican PolicyRachel Maddow talks about how Americans dislike the tea party more than gay people, Muslims, atheists, and liberals by looking at data from a recent poll. The poll found that the Tea Party is easily the single most unpopular group in America. This is something you'd think the Republican Party would take to heart. As Maddow noted, "<i>If you were the Republican Party, and you were going to give one of these groups of Americans veto power over who was going to be your presidential nominee...which of these groups would you choose? I mean, really? You'd give that power to the one at the very, very bottom, underneath the atheists? Really?"<br />
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Yet looking at the 2012 Republican presidential field to date, the only guy who has solidly distanced himself from the Tea Party and is actually making any sense is Jon Huntsman, who is polling at a 1% and at bottom of the pack.<br />
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Nicole Wallace, former White House communications director and senior advisor to the McCain-Palin campaign joined Rachel to discuss why Republicans are so deferential to the tea party and why they're so unpopular.<br />
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