The Obama Marraige

 

President Obama Honors Fallen Soldiers

Something else President Obama has done that the Bushit never did –

Honor our fallen soldiers.

 

President Obama Signs Matthew Sheppard/James Byrd Hate Crimes Law

Bad day for conservatives!

 

What the Faux News War is Really About

This is what the Faux News “war” is really about. Pay special attention to the Paul Weyrich remark –

Rethuglys are attempting to attack organizations which they see as “Democratic Bases”, including ACORN and the SEIU in an attempt to deny funding and voters to the Democrats. Faux News has led the charge in trying to destroy ACORN, the SEIU, and Voter Registration Drives.

Look for Congress to start going after Faux, and the captive right-wing propaganda operations through a number of vehicles, including some sort of modified Fairness Doctrine. I would hope the FCC is encouraged to bring back local station ownership requirements, and break up the virtual monopoly on the radio airwaves.

Insofar as Rachael Maddow’s claim that the “Anti-Acorn” Law is unconstitutional – need I remind anyone that the constitutionality of a law hasn’t been a consideration of the conservative 5 justice majority in the Supreme Court…

Since 2000.

 

Drugbo Gets His Day In Congress – Rep. Steve King (R-IA)

Here is Rep Steve King, Republican of Iowa, ambushing NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell with the false equivalencies argument. This raises the question as to why a member of Congress should be trying to browbeat a corporation on behalf of Limbaugh, with “facts” which are at best disputed. Let’s get into Representative King –

In March 2008, King predicted on Heraldo Rivera’s Faux News Show that Al Quaeda would be “dancing in the streets if Obama was elected” –

“The radical Islamists, the al-Qaida … would be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on Sept. 11 because they would declare victory in this war on terror…His middle name does matter, it matters because they read a meaning into that.”

“[I]f I am wrong, Geraldo, and we elect Obama to the presidency and he declares defeat, if they don’t dance in the streets, I will come and apologize to you and everybody in America. But I’m saying, I’m right.”

 

Will the HNIC Snatch Defeat From the Jaws of Victory in Virginia

If I was McDonnell, running for Governor in Virginia, I couldn’t think of anything worse than a visible visit by the HNIC right now…Should be good for a 5 point drop in the polls, and undermine Sheila Johnson’s support.

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We’re Number 9!We’re Number 9! How America Lost It’s Swagger With Conservatism

How did conservatism fail America?

Years Of Right Wing Policies Have Tarnished America

America Is Just The World’s Ninth Best Country

The U.S. rates relatively poorly in the 2009 Legatum Prosperity Index, a ranking of 104 countries in terms of a broad definition of prosperity that includes economic growth and quality of life measures.

America leads big countries, with strong scores for democracy, entrepreneurship and innovation, but it still has a long way to go, easily losing to the Scandinavians, Canadians, Aussies and others in many important categories like health, governance and economic fundamentals.

• The U.S. ranks 1st in the world in Entrepreneurship and Innovation and 2nd in the world in the strength of Democratic Institutions.
• Two other areas of American strength are Education (7th globally), and Social Capital (also 7th globally).
• The U.S. performs worst in the health category, ranking 27th in the world. Dissatisfaction with their overall health is dragging down Americans’ sense of well-being, affecting their determination to get ahead and impacting their faith in the health care system.
• Ranking 19th globally, safety and security is another relative weakness of the U.S. Lower scores are driven by the large number of people in the U.S. who feel they live in unsafe places, coupled with a high per capita murder rate relative to other developed nations.
• The U.S. ranks 16th globally on Governance, indicating that Americans believe that there is too much corruption in their government and sometimes doubt the honesty of elections.  The United States’ laws and regulations are generally seen to foster economic growth, but government’s negative effects pull down its citizens’ quality of life.

Four areas of failure –

1. Health Care – With the US ranked 27th in the world.
2. Public Safety – Gunz everywhere!
3. Governance – The stolen and corrupt “sElections” of 2000 and 2004 destroyed faith in the electoral system.
4. The Bushit Administration was the most corrupt Administration in American History, with hundreds of billions of dollars stolen by insiders during the Iraq fiasco.

 

Virginia Gubernatorial Race – What it Does and Doesn’t Mean

Republicans are chomping at the bit at the poll numbers indicating that Republican Gubernatorial candidate McDonnell has a large lead over Democrat Creigh Deeds in Virginia’s off year Governor’s race.

Various pundits are trying to spin a Republican win the Virginia Governors race as having some key relevance to the upcoming 2010 Mid-Term Elections. Unfortunately, much of what is being spun, is just that – SPIN – with little or no relevance to reality. So – let’s deal with a couple of the more popular Republican “Urban” spin myths –

“Virginia is a Blue State”

No – Virginia is a purple state with a penchant for electing moderates. The last time the state elected a conservative ideologue was Governor Gilmore. It took the state 6 years to financially recover from that disaster, as Gilmore slashed taxes and ignored the actual operating costs of the state putting the State in it’s deepest financial hole since the Civil War. As the Republican Party has become more conservative, drifting farther and farther from the State’s ideological center – they have lost election after election to moderate, largely moderate Blue Dog Democrats. McCain, whose Military background should have made him a slam dunk in the state lost for one reason and one reason only…

Sarah Palin.

McDonnell has kept the rancid conservative red meat off the table, and run at the center.

“A McDonnell Win is a Rejection of Obama”

No, it isn’t. While much has been made of the black vote as being pivotal in the state in moving it into the win column for Obama – that is mostly smoke an mirrors. The reason Obama won had to do with young and white middle class suburban voters in Northern Virginia and Southeastern Virginia rejecting conservatism which they felt had become extremist. Creigh Deeds is a Southwestern Virginia boy, with no real roots in either of the urban and suburban areas of Virginia. McDonnell was raised in Northern Virginia, and now lives in Virginia Beach – both urban/suburban areas. McDonnell is winning (so far) based on this pedigree, and running away from the conservative “values” arguments which so turn off suburban/urban voters.

Second – Deeds is not the “Administration’s candidate”.  Deeds beat the two presumptive DNC candidates, Moran and Terry McAluffe in the Democrat Primary.

Lastly, McDonnell has tailored his message to the Northern Virginia – Southeastern Virginia voters, talking about transportation issues in terms of completing mass transportation projects and widening roads – as well as coming up with proposals to keep the juggernaut school systems in those areas funded. This is the exact reverse of typical Republican-speak in Virginia, who greet Northern Virginia and it’s transportation issues with disdain, and Northern Virginia’s Public School Juggernaut, consistently rated as one of the top 5 in the whole nation, with suspicion and hostility.

A Win for Republican (conservative) values –

Wrong again!

McDonnell has done several things to improve his chances in attracting minority voters, instead of writing their vote off. As such, he has met with Asian groups in Northern Virginia over 50 times, done the Black Church walks, and avoided the usual conservative pitfalls. Pitfalls?

Republican Minority Voter Kryptonite includes a lot more than just those “Macacca Moments” – so lets discuss some of those Minority Kryptonite conservative values moves –

1. McDonnell, unlike his Party’s  previous Republican candidates has refused to swear fealty under the confederate flag.  While Virginia historically is inseparable from the Civil War, the symbology of the confederate flag, deification of dead confederates and dead confederate symbols has come to represent intolerance, bigotry, and racism to Minority voters.
2. Military background. As the sole fully integrated entity in the United States for decades, years spent in the Service gain respect because of the values of the Military. McDonnell has a Military background, and one of his daughters is currently serving in Iraq in the Army. That is a huge contrast between McDonnell and the usual chickenhawk conservative crew.
3. Real Minority support. Black conservatives are Minority voter Kryptonite in that they are willing to be trotted out to provide racial cover for racist conservatives. The bullshit detector goes right off the scale, making many of these folks about as welcome in your average minority person’s living room as the local head of the Crips or MS-13. Trotting out the sort of black conservatives you see on Faux News means you have something to hide, and what you are hiding is ugly – typically racism. McDonnell approached and recruited Minority business leaders and political figures, and convinced some of them that he is a departure from the conservative Republican White People’s Party mold – thus getting Sheila Johnson to speak on his behalf, and convincing Former Governor Doug Wilder, if not to support him – not to make an endorsement of the Democrat candidate. He also gained the support of Virginia’s Black Police Chiefs.

Lastly, McDonnell has run a campaign focused on issues, and proposals to address issues like roads, schools, privatization of the state run Liquor stores, and to continue the tradition of support and growth of Virginia businesses started by Democrat Governor Mark Warner (Warner supports Deeds)…

Not conservative red meat issues and talking points.

So… If McDonnell wins, what it really is is a rejection of conservative values of guns, homophobia, and racism…

That put him there.

And the death knell of the far-right conservatism that has threatened to destroy the Republican Party the last few election cycles.

 

Clarence Thomas To Other Justices: Be Quiet!

This one is stranger than usual from Clarence Thomas. Justice Thomas is known for his silence on the court, going years without asking a single question of the Attorney’s presenting cases before the Supreme Court. Now we find up it is because he has already made up his mind before hearing the oral arguments…

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Clarence Thomas, the justice long known as the silent member of the Supreme Court, criticized his colleagues Friday for badgering attorneys rather than letting them speak during oral arguments.

Thomas – who hasn’t asked a lawyer a question during arguments in nearly four years – said he and the other eight justices virtually always know where they stand on a case by reading legal briefs before oral arguments.

“So why do you beat up on people if you already know? I don’t know, because I don’t beat up on ‘em. I refuse to participate. I don’t like it, so I don’t do it,” Thomas said during an appearance before law students at the University of Alabama.

Thomas didn’t name names, but fellow conservative Justice Antonin Scalia is generally considered the court’s most aggressive questioner during oral arguments. President Barack Obama’s lone nominee so far, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, isn’t afraid to ask questions either.

Thomas scoffed at the idea that the justices try to use questions to influence the opinions of fellow members of the court.

“All nine of us are in the same building,” he said. “If we want to sway each other we know where we are. We don’t need oral arguments to do that. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Just another good reason to hope for several Court retirements during Obama’s First Term…

Including Thomas’.

A little Funk for Clarence –

 

Dr Dre Says F*ck Rush Limbaugh + Excited About Ron Artest Being On The Lakers.

‘Nuf said!

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HuffPost’s Nico Pitney: Fox News Largely “A 24-Hour Campaign Against The Obama Administration” (VIDEO)

This one is a debate on CNN over the White House dropping a load of bricks on Faux News.

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The interesting thing here is Jane Hall defending Faux – then confessing as to why she quit Faux.

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Food Fight!

This one is like the two smallest guys in the schoolyard throwing down on each other –

First is the King of Whine, John Stossel joining the Whack-Job crew over at Faux –

Next Lou “The Immigrant Lover” Dobbs, clearing the air about Whiny man –

A little tune for conservatives…

 

Michelle Obama on Jay Leno

The First Lady, looking fabulous as usual – doing 10 questions on the Jay Leno Show.

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Blumental on Gay GOP

The psychology of conservatism – or “Why do conservatives do…

Exactly what they say others shouldn’t?”

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Now Blumenthal’s explanation is controversial (to say the least), but one of the things that has mystified progressives since the mid 90’s with the Bubbaloonies (Clinton haters)is the reality disconnect of conservatives. The ability to believe in things that are absolutely, absurdly, and patently untrue when they incorporate elements of scandal or foible aimed at “Liberals”. Birthers, Deathers et al. The ability to see an issue when the plainly available facts contradict it.

Ergo – what makes conservatives so different from normal people?

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Speed Skating Into Treason – ‘Military Coup’ Newsmax Column

This one about a NewMax article –

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Now admittedly, Rumsfeld pretty badly polluted the command structure with syncopates during his tenure, and eliminated anyone who didn’t march to the neo-con tune. But that is a far leap from Treason.

Think those folks over at NewsMax must have found a a whole warehouse full of crack left over from the Raygun days…

And smoked it.

NewsMax is funded (partially) by the RNC – so this level of treason runs deep in the party of wing nuts and bigots.

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