Afternoon Open Thread

8 Sep 2010 Author: rikyrah

The right wing bitched and whined about the President not ‘ acknowledging’ Shrub enough when he gave his speech on Iraq. Jeremy Scahill breaks down why they need to sit down and STFU.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Good Afternoon.

As you go through the rest of your day, don’t forget JJP.

Drop those links. Engage in debate. Give us trivia and gossip too.

And continue to have a peaceful day.

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rikyrah
Good Afternoon, Everyone :)
rikyrah
put this under HELL TO THE NO:
Long Island Man Arrested For Defending Home With AK-47
Says Many Gang Members Were Coming After His Family
September 7, 2010 11:00 PM
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (CBS 2) — He was arrested for protecting his property and family.
But it’s how the Long Island man did it that police say crossed the line.
He got an AK-47 assault rifle, pulled the trigger and he ended up in jail, reports CBS 2’s Pablo Guzman.
George Grier said he had to use his rifle on Sunday night to stop what he thought was going to be an invasion of his Uniondale home by a gang he thought might have been the vicious “MS-13.” He said the whole deal happened as he was about to drive his cousin home.
“I went around and went into the house, ran upstairs and told my wife to call the police. I get the gun and I go outside and I come into the doorway and now, by this time, they are in the driveway, back here near the house. I tell them, you know, ‘Can you please leave?’ Grier said.
Grier said the five men dared him to use the gun; and that their shouts brought another larger group of gang members in front of his house.
“He starts threatening my family, my life. ‘Oh you’re dead. I’m gonna kill your family and your babies. You’re dead.’ So when he says that, 20 others guys come rushing around the corner. And so I fired four warning shots into the grass,” Grier said.
Grier was later arrested. John Lewis is Grier’s attorney.
“What he’s initially charged with – A D felony reckless endangerment — requires a depraved indifference to human life, creating a risk that someone’s going to die. Shooting into a lawn doesn’t create a risk of anybody dying,” Lewis said.
Grier said he knew Nassau County Police employ the hi-tech “ShotSpotter” technology in his area and that the shooting would bring police in minutes. Cops told Guzman he was very cooperative.
Grier also said he was afraid the gang outside his house was the dreaded MS-13. And Nassau County Police Lt. Andrew Mulraine, head of the gang unit, said MS-13 has 2,000 members in the county.
“They’re probably the most organized. They almost have a military hierarchy within the gang, so they are the most organized gang we encounter on a daily basis,” Mulraine said.
You may think a person has the right to defend their home. But the law says you can only use physical force to deter physical force. Grier said he never saw anyone pull out a gun, so a court would have to decide on firing the gun.
Police determined Grier had the gun legally. He has no criminal record. And so he was not charged for the weapon.
That ShotSpotter technology pinpoints where a gun has been fired within 35 feet. Police said it also detected two other shootings in nearby Roosevelt that night.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2010/09/07/long-island-man-arrested-for-defending-home-with-ak-47/
rikyrah
Senator Bennet Opposes Obama's New Economics Plan! Hotlist
ShareNew 0
by slinkerwink [Subscribe]
Wed Sep 08, 2010 at 11:21:37 AM PDT
In a shocking news story is the report that Senator Bennet, in a tight race in Colorado, has come out against the $50 billion federal investment in transportation infrastructure. This is the kind of investment that would CREATE jobs for those living in the state of Colorado.
But new spending on highways, railways and airports, done through a so-called infrastructure bank, would be too much spending for Bennet. He faces a tough general election against Republican Ken Buck, who has made goverment spending a hallmark of his conservative campiagn.
“I will not support additional spending in a second stimulus package. Any new transportation initiatives can be funded through the Recovery Act, which still contains unused funds,” Bennet said. “Public-private partnerships that improve our infrastructure are a good idea, but must be paid for, should not add a dime to the deficit, and should be covered by unused Recovery Act dollars. We must make hard choices to significantly reduce the deficit.”
* slinkerwink's diary :: ::
*
To put it simply, the $50 billion federal investment in infrastructure is the best thing about President Obama's new economic plan, and now this is to be opposed by Senator Bennet? The White House has said that they're willing to work with Congress in making sure this project is fully paid for. So, it's rather odd that Bennet would be this eager to squash this direct job-creating plan.
Coloradans should let U.S. Senator Bennet know that the White House welcomes ideas on how to pay for the job-creating plan, and to stop opposing needed jobs in transportation infrastructure. Highways, bridges, and rail transportation are sorely in need of work in Colorado as you can see below:
1. 18% of Colorado’s bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.
2. There are 352 high hazard dams in Colorado. A high hazard dam is defined as a dam whose failure would cause a loss of life and significant property damage.
3. 9 of Colorado’s 1,935 dams are in need of rehabilitation to meet applicable state dam safety standards.
4. 32% of Colorado’s major roads are in poor or mediocre condition.
5. 31% of Colorado’s major urban highways are congested.
It's very clear that Colorado is in need of federal investment in their transportation infrastructure, and that it'd be madness to say no to the kind of investment that will directly create jobs for Coloradans.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/9/8/900154/-Senator-Bennet-Opposes-Obamas-New-Economics-Plan!
rikyrah
Angle: I Was Speaking Christian Audience's Language On 'First Commandment' Line
Sharron Angle has given an interesting explanation to the mainstream media about one of the controversial statements she made to conservative media: That she was tailoring her language to that audience. And in offering this explanation, she apparently just dug in even further.
In an interview with ABC News, Angle was asked about her past comment that the agenda of Harry Reid and President Obama violated the First Commandment. (Not the First Amendment — the First Commandment. As in, their liberal big government is a sin because it takes people's attention and dependence away from God.)
“I said that? No I didn't say that,” Angle told Jonathan Karl — then possibly remembering it. “Actually, that was a discussion I was having with CBN. We were talking in very Christian terms. That's what Christian broadcast is — that's their focus — so you speak the language of the folks that you're communicating with. And I was speaking in their language. And the language that I used was that in our country, we have become a country that has put our faith, not 'in God we trust,' which is on our money — as you know.
“Not 'in God we trust,' but in government we trust, and that is what I was referring to — that we have allowed government in many ways to take the place of God,” Angle said.
In fact, Angle made the comment back in April, during the Republican primary, and it “>came to light in August — and it was not on CBN, either. She actually made the comment with an outlet called TruNews Christian Radio, with host Rick Wiles.
“And these programs that you mentioned — that Obama has going with Reid and Pelosi pushing them forward — are all entitlement programs built to make government our God,” Angle said at the time. “And that's really what's happening in this country is a violation of the First Commandment. We have become a country entrenched in idolatry, and that idolatry is the dependency upon our government. We're supposed to depend upon God for our protection and our provision and for our daily bread, not for our government.”
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/09/angle-i-was-speaking-christian-audiences-language-on-first-commandment-line.php
rikyrah
GOP House Candidate On Civil Rights: ‘We Need To Get Our Federal Government Out Of The Way’
OH-16 GOP nominee Jim Renacci
OH-16 GOP nominee Jim Renacci
Fireworks occurred during a town hall in Canton, OH, last night when Rep. John Boccieri (D-OH) unexpectedly showed up at his Republican opponent’s public event. Challenger Jim Renacci and Boccieri sparred for about 70 minutes in an unofficial first debate. And ThinkProgress was in attendance.
During the event, an African-American constituent named Robert Thompson asked Renacci what he would do on the issue of civil rights. Renacci’s response: local control. He called civil rights “local issues” and said the solution is “to get our federal government out of the way” because “it’s not the federal government’s job”:
ROBERT THOMPSON: What is your position in regards to addressing those concerns. And again, I’m concerned about the civil rights and the diversity of your campaign in terms of why anybody of color should be in support of you as a congressman.
RENACCI: [...] A lot of the problems you’re talking about are local issues. And I’m also a firm believer that the federal government and our Constitution was based on freedom, and was based on the freedoms that our number one goal of our military is freedom. We need to get our federal government out of the way and we need to allow our local governments to become more involved in many of the issues you’re talking about. I don’t believe these are federal issues to come down. I believe the federal government’s number one goal is to protect our freedoms. So the answer to your question is I believe a lot of things need to come back to the local level, and I believe things like you’re talking about do need to go back to the local level. And they need to be looked at in the cities. I was a mayor of my community. I think those are important ways of looking at all that. It’s not the federal government’s job.
Watch here:
Thompson astutely responded by pointing out that, “but for the federal government, we wouldn’t have had civil rights. … It took the federal government to come in and say ‘you can’t discriminate for housing, you can’t discriminate for jobs, you can’t discriminate for education.’” Local governments, Thompson concluded, “are the ones that were holding us back.”
Indeed, while “local control” may be appropriate for some matters, Renacci’s response indicates a dangerous ignorance of both past and present civil rights issues. One need look no further than the passing of Jefferson Thomas this week. Thomas was a member of the Little Rock Nine who, under the protection of the U.S. Army, endured the taunts and violence of racist mobs in order to integrate Arkansas’s Central High School following the Brown v. Board Supreme Court decision. Federal intervention was absolutely necessary as Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus had “ordered the state’s National Guard to keep black students out” of the school.
Moreover, Renacci has a strange notion of the word “freedom.” When President Lyndon Johnson called upon Congress to protect the voting rights of all Americans, he promised the new law would “vindicate the freedom of all Americans.” But in Renacci’s world, “freedom” apparently means the right to be free from such measures.
ThinkProgress caught up with Thompson after the town hall to get his thoughts about Renacci’s answer:
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/09/08/renacci-civil-rights/#comments
rikyrah
because of Peanut, I watch a bit of kid's tv.
we got Dora, Diego, Maya & Luis
now, there's a little Chinese girl with Ni Hao,Kai-Lan – complete with dropping actual Chinese during the show.
I saw Biz Markie dropping beats on something called Yo Gabba Gabba
but, we can't get a cartoon with a little Black kid?
SouthernGirl2
Rikyrah,
Haley & JT both love Dora & Caillou. :)
RobM
44 should not have said a damn thing about Shrub. Shrub took this country into a military endeavor for the sole purpose of ginning up the Republican Party and taking money away from the average person to fund the new military industrial complex. worse he did it while we were already righteously engaged against another country. He stripped the military of the ability to fight either effectively for over 7 years.
RobM
Amazing that someone can be so exceptionally stupid as to deny his state an opportunity of improving its infrastructure.
RobM
If you own a weapon you have to understand when and under what circumstances you can use it. You stay in the house, call the police and shoot dead the first person who pulls a gun when they come on your property. Then your objective is to keep the body from disappearing while waiting for the police
djchefron
Why do dummycrats think if they take teabaggers positions the idiots will vote for them?
RobM
LMBAO! LMBAO! Matthews just played this scene from the Untouchables:
Malone: You said you wanted to get Capone. Do you really wanna get him? You see what I'm saying is, what are you prepared to do?
Ness: Anything within the law.
Malone: And *then* what are you prepared to do? If you open the can on these worms you must be prepared to go all the way. Because they're not gonna give up the fight, until one of you is dead.
Ness: I want to get Capone! I don't know how to do it.
Malone: You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. *That's* the *Chicago* way! And that's how you get Capone. Now do you want to do that? Are you ready to do that? I'm offering you a deal. Do you want this deal?
Ness: I have sworn to capture this man with all legal powers at my disposal and I will do so.
Malone: Well, the Lord hates a coward.
[jabs Ness with his hand, and Ness shakes it]
Malone: Do you know what a blood oath is, Mr. Ness?
Ness: Yes.
Malone: Good, 'cause you just took one.
To bad the President can't get past the law.
RobM
The President needs to tie the death of any American overseas who gets killed after the sept 11th burning of the Koran to every elected member of the Republican Party who doesn't denounce the burning of the Korans. they should be called traitors and seditious. Free Speech doesn't allow you to go into a crowded room and yell fire or start a fire.
rikyrah
Ms. Lindsey endorsed Charlie Crist?
rikyrah
Cynthia Tucker
Haley Barbour’s ‘dog whistle’: It’s OK to think Obama’s Muslim
3:46 pm September 8, 2010, by ctucker
As Mississippi governor and head of the Republican Governors Association, Haley Barbour has refused to engage in some of the more outrageous and slimy political rhetoric that many Republicans have engaged in against President Obama. Barbour hasn’t sunk to the level of, say, Newt Gingrich.
So I was disappointed in Barbour this morning, when he refused to give a straightforward and simple answer to a reporter’s question about persistence of incorrect assumptions about Obama’s religion and national origins. The answer is, “Well, of course, he’s a Christian. Of course, he was born in Hawaii.”
Instead, Barbour took refuge in the sly and seamy code that Republicans are using these days. Speaking at a reporters’ breakfast roundtable, he said:
“I don’t know why people think what they think… This is a president that we know less about than any other president in history. I accept just totally at face value that he is a Christian. He said so throughout the time he’s been in public life. That’s good enough for me.” (Check the video below at about 1:20.)
Cynthia Tucker
Haley Barbour’s ‘dog whistle’: It’s OK to think Obama’s Muslim
3:46 pm September 8, 2010, by ctucker
As Mississippi governor and head of the Republican Governors Association, Haley Barbour has refused to engage in some of the more outrageous and slimy political rhetoric that many Republicans have engaged in against President Obama. Barbour hasn’t sunk to the level of, say, Newt Gingrich.
So I was disappointed in Barbour this morning, when he refused to give a straightforward and simple answer to a reporter’s question about persistence of incorrect assumptions about Obama’s religion and national origins. The answer is, “Well, of course, he’s a Christian. Of course, he was born in Hawaii.”
Instead, Barbour took refuge in the sly and seamy code that Republicans are using these days. Speaking at a reporters’ breakfast roundtable, he said:
“I don’t know why people think what they think… This is a president that we know less about than any other president in history. I accept just totally at face value that he is a Christian. He said so throughout the time he’s been in public life. That’s good enough for me.” (Check the video below at about 1:20.)
In politics, pros speak of “dog whistles” — messages meant to be heard by only a certain segment of the electorate, not the entire electorate. Barbour intended to signal to the rightwing paranoids among the GOP constituency that their suspicions about Obama are well-founded.
As for doubts about Obama’s religion, you can’t blast Obama as a “racist” for being a member of Jeremiah Wright’s church — Trinity United Church of Christ — for 20 years and then pretend you don’t really know his religious identity.
As for the governor’s claim that Americans know less about Obama than “any president in history,” that’s just sheer, well, hogwash. If you doubt Obama’s memoir, reams were written about him during his Senate campaign and during the presidential campaign. Reporters trooped around and found former Indonesian and Hawaiin classmates, his grandmothers’ colleagues at her bank and friends of his mother’s. Some old college photos of Obama turned up.
If some Americans refuse to believe the facts, that can’t be helped. But the truth is out there.
http://blogs.ajc.com/cynthia-tucker/2010/09/08/haley-barbours-dog-whistle-its-ok-to-think-obamas-muslim/?cxntfid=blogs_cynthia_tucker
lamh32
Anyone else excited about the season premiere of “Unsung” on TVONE monday? The subject is Teddy Pendagrass. I love me some Teddy P!!! It will be the first one I've ever watched of this series
djchefron
As Stadiums Vanish, Their Debt Lives On

It’s the gift that keeps on taking. The old Giants Stadium, demolished to make way for New Meadowlands Stadium, still carries about $110 million in debt, or nearly $13 for every New Jersey resident, even though it is now a parking lot.

Read More
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/08/sports/08stadium.html?_r=1&ref=sports
The_A
Totally!!
lamh32
For anyone who cares, the season premiere of America's Next Top Model is on the WB tonite.
Tyra is a crazy beeyotch, but damn if I don't luv watching her put the “new” models to the test!
http://muzikalthoughts.blogspot.com Muzikal203
I care! And I will be watching, even though a lot of the new chicks look like dudes in photos, at least before their makeovers. Pllllllllllllllllease let the makeovers be tonight like last season. LOL. AND Miss J is back!
RobM
No can't support Rupert Murdoch. If you think this is bad I just found out that burn Notice is produced by FOX. TV is almost gone for me.
lamh32
So glad Miss J is back. I don't know what Tyra was thinking not having J on the panel.
Actually, I do, I bet she just figured 2 “queens” on the panel was too much show stealing from Tyra. So she had Andre Leon Talley on the panel instead of Miss J. A mistake IMHO.
Also, if I was on any other season, I'd be mad. This season gets a better more fashion forward cover Italian Vogue, and from the clips I saw, this season will have more high profile designers than in past season.
Angelar
The President was getting compliments on Hardball tonight for his speech in Parma, OH given today.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/#39067171
RobM
This link discusses what would give America an A or infrastructure. I doubt even Sweden has an A give their criteria. We have a D.
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/09/us-infrastructure-report-card-d/
http://twitter.com/wordsnourishme Matthew Wright
They burn Qurans and they use the word 'nigger.' This is one hell of a church.
http://wrightandleftreport.com/political-fringe/dove-world-outreach-church-teaches-us-all-about-real-racism/
RobM
If you want to talk about fear of the Republicans taking over remembering we just spent alot of money doing the census. Next year districts become remade. the Republicans remade themselves a majority in many districts and they will do so again.
This problem is something the Republicans work on every damn day. the Democrats take the crumbs(sinecures for incompetent lazy politicians) because they don't have an ongoing plan to run the country. Much of this is the inability to coalesce around central ideas because of the factions of the party will not sit down and agree w/ anything.
JeffL
Some nice sports photos of FLOTUS at a DK diary:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/9/8/899851/-Mr.-Boehner,-meet-Barack-Obama.-%28Video,-photos%29
rikyrah
is this the same church?
they are who we thought they were.
rikyrah
Why Boehner?
by BooMan
Wed Sep 8th, 2010 at 05:40:02 PM EST
Mr. Starbursts is confused about why the president chose to attack The Human Suntan today during his speech in Cleveland. Rich Lowry takes this to mean that the president is already resigned to Mr. Boehner being the Speaker of the House next year. But Mr. Lowry isn't very bright. The reason Obama was blasting Boehner is because Boehner is an idiot who refuses to make any coherent arguments, and he's the leader of a Know-Nothing party that cannot articulate any positive vision or use any honest reasoning. The president is providing the missing pieces of logic that show the Republican arguments for what they are. And what they are is terrifyingly similar to Sarah Palin's tweets: rambling nonsense.
The Republicans' gigantic weakness is that the American people hate them even more than the Democrats. The momentum the Republicans think they have is built entirely on the general apathy of the majority of American voters. There is no support for privatizing Social Security or making Bush's tax cuts for the rich permanent. There is no nostalgia for Bush. No one wants more war in more countries. People don't want a government that looks out for big business every single time. The GOP has nothing to be for. They are afraid to even offer a single policy that they think the federal government should pursue, lest their teabagging compatriots burn them in effigy for making the suggestion that the government deserves to live.
The president went after Boehner because he is a paper tiger. He wants to be the leader of the House, but he can't say why.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2010/9/8/17402/02766
rikyrah
September 8, 2010
NRCC FORGETS WHICH PARTY REQUESTED, APPROVED OF WALL STREET BAILOUT…. Sigh.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is out with its first independent expenditure ad of the season, taking aim at Rep. Joe Donnelly (D-IN). The ad, according to Politico, paints Donnelly as “a pawn of Democratic leaders” and is just the first effort in the committee's plan to “invest $22 million in 41 districts across the nation.” What's interesting about the ad is that it goes after Donnelly for voting for legislation that many Republicans also supported.
The ad says Donnelly voted with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) 88 percent of the time, including on the “Obama-Pelosi health care plan,” Wall Street bailout, and the “$800 billion stimulus that failed.”
I realize the Wall Street bailout is unpopular, but including it in ads like these really is foolish.
The NRCC is filled with slow learners, so let's set the record straight again. The financial industry bailout was passed in October 2008. It was requested by a conservative Republican administration (George W. Bush and Dick Cheney). It was enthusiastically endorsed by the House Republican leadership (John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and Roy Blunt), the Senate Republican leadership (Mitch McConnell and Jon Kyl), both members of the Republican presidential ticket (John McCain and Sarah Palin), and assorted, high-profile conservative voices (Mitt Romney and Glenn Beck).
Indeed, after the Republicans' would-be Speaker got choked up pleading with his colleagues to support the bailout, it was endorsed by none other than Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), who happens to be the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Yes, that's right, the NRCC is attacking a Democrat for voting the same way as the chairman of the NRCC.
Imagine if the DSCC ran an attack ad against Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) for supporting the stimulus, because polls showed the stimulus to be unpopular, even though the DSCC leadership voted for the stimulus. It'd be laughable, right? This is the exact same thing.
—Steve Benen 12:30 PM
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_09/025574.php
rikyrah
September 8, 2010
MAYBE HALEY BARBOUR SHOULD VISIT A BOOKSTORE SOMETIME…. Fresh off his bizarre and widely-mocked version of Southern history, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) has turned his attention to President Obama's history.
Barbour, the Republican governor of Mississippi flirting with a presidential bid in 2012, told reporters today that Americans know less about President Obama than “any other president in history.”
Reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor this morning asked Barbour why so many voters wrongly think Obama is Muslim. Barbour said it's surely no “vast right-wing conspiracy,” and that he has no reason to doubt Obama's Christian faith or his citizenship.
“I accept just totally at face value that he's a Christian,” Barbour said. “He said so throughout the time he's been in public life, that's good enough for me.”
But Barbour pointedly mused about where the false rumors have originated.
“I don't know why people think what they think,” Barbour said. He paused and then added, “This is a president that we know less about than any other president in history.”
He went on to say — just as “an observation,” of course — that “there's not much known” about the president's youth. “We don't know any of the childhood things,” Barbour argued.
I guess the follow-up for the governor question is, “Who counts as 'we'?”
I have a strong hunch that Haley Barbour doesn't spend a lot of time in bookstores, but there's an entire book about Obama's upbringing. Obama wrote it. It was a best-seller.
“We” arguably know more about this president than any in modern times — his life has literally been an open-book that “we” can read.
The larger point remains the same, and it remains ugly. Far-right leaders, most notably those with problematic backgrounds on race, are obsessed with characterizing the president as some kind of foreign “other” to be mistrusted and seen as illegitimate. It's absurd and offensive, but it remains at the center of conservative thought.
—Steve Benen 4:35 PM
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_09/025581.php
rikyrah
GOP Claims $50 Billion For Infrastructure Is Too Pricey, While Pushing $800 Billion Tax Cut For The Rich
This week, President Obama rolled out a plan to invest $50 billion in infrastructure as a way of boosting job creation, which will be (at least partially) paid for by cutting subsidies to oil and gas companies. Republicans immediately criticized the proposal, with even Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who typically jumps at the chance to approve infrastructure spending, saying he wouldn’t vote for it.
But many Republicans, at the same time that they are claiming that a $50 billion investment in America’s infrastructure is a budget-buster, are pushing to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of Americans. At $830 billion, the price tag for extending that sliver of the Bush cuts is more than 16 times the cost of Obama’s infrastructure proposal:
Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI): Miller “said the Obama administration’s proposal amounts to a second, costly stimulus plan…Instead, she said, the president should quickly support an extension of the George W. Bush tax cuts for all income groups.”
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH): We don’t need more government ’stimulus’ spending. We need to end Washington Democrats’ out-of-control spending spree, [and] stop their tax hikes.
GOP Senate nominee Pat Toomey (PA): “Pat opposes more deficit spending and will fight for fiscal responsibility and reducing the deficit in the Senate,” said Toomey spokesperson Nachama Soloveichik.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY): After the administration pledged that a trillion dollars in borrowed stimulus money would create 4 million jobs and keep the unemployment rate under 8 percent, their latest plan for another stimulus should be met with justifiable skepticism…The administration wants to do it again — this time with higher taxes for even more new spending.
These Republicans all support extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of Americans as a means of boosting the economy. But as The Wonk Room explains, investing in infrastructure provides far more bang for the buck in terms of job creation than extending the Bush tax cuts. Plus, if $50 billion for infrastructure (that will be at least partially paid for) is too expensive, then extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy is definitely unaffordable as well.
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/09/08/gop-bush-50
rikyrah
Gallup: Oops!
Posted by Al Giordano – September 8, 2010 at 8:51 am
By Al Giordano
The Gallup polling company, which set off a week's media cycle of Chicken Little squawking among Democrats – and triumphant drape-measuring by Republicans – in the US with its August 30 declarations about a supposedly “historic” advantage for the latter party in the upcoming Congressional midterm elections, is now walking it back.
The August 30 tracking poll – picked up almost universally by political pundits and bloggers as the supposed narrative for 2010 – showed Republicans with a ten percentage point lead on the generic question of which party voters will vote into Congress. The narrative was: This year we're gonna party like its 1994! I, and others, tried to explain at the moment that the poll looked and smelled like an “outlier,” divergent with the results of the aggregate of fresh polling data available. But pundits are pundits and chickens are little on any day of the year, and so they had quite the week in the henhouse.
Well, lo' and behold, some seemed to forget that those numbers were from a tracking poll, which means another one would come out in a week and make the last one yesterday's news. And guess what? Today's Gallup tracking poll on the generic Congressional ballot suggests an abrupt turnaround, with party preferences dead even at 46 percent apiece.
Don't believe that either. Republicans probably still enjoy a five or six point advantage that falls naturally to the party out of power on midterm election years. And they'll likely pick up a couple dozen House seats and a half a dozen in the Senate, short of the majorities they covet. But this little adventure in media and blog spasm in response to one week's tracking poll results tells us plenty about the behavior of the political commentary class: always willing to take the smallest factoid of supposed data and blow it up into a platform on which to lecture the White House and everyone else about what it is supposedly doing wrong. (“If only the President had listened to ME,” is how most of the commentary can be translated, “the sky wouldn't be falling.”)
By now the expectations have risen so high among Republicans that if they fall short of taking back control of Congress the heads will be rolling on their side of the aisle, with finger pointing and blame game galore. It doesn't take a degree in political science to know who will be their scapegoat: GOP chairman Michael Steele. (Kids, can any of you explain to the class why it will be him?)
Truth is, the political season has only just begun, post Labor Day in the US. And there is many a slip twixt the cup and lip yet to come. I've been crunching numbers on US House races and here's another interesting piece of data that keeps coming up: in about 75 percent of the closely contested ones, the Democrat enjoys a significant fundraising advantage over the Republican. There are exceptions, of course, but that's why political reporters are supposed to exist, to inform you as to where the holes in a story line can be found. What is clear is that nobody's been asleep at the wheel over at the HQ of the party in power. They've been moving the pieces quietly around the chess board all summer long.
This week's Gallup tracking poll, while it has the horse race pulled even, still has twice as many Republicans telling pollsters that they are “enthusiastic” about voting as Democrats who say that. But I suspect that's more a commentary on the personality traits on each side than an outcome determinative factor. Voting is like going to the dentist. Hard to be enthusiastic about it, but if the tooth aches, one goes anyway.
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/4098/gallup-oops#comments
rikyrah
Top Republicans Silent On Hate Pastor’s Planned Quran Burning Event
This week, Gen. David Petraeus, top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and Gen. William Caldwell, the training commander in Afghanistan, warned that Dove World Church’s “International Burn a Quran Day” on September 11 would put U.S. troops’ lives in danger and undermine NATO’s mission in Afghanistan. Despite their warnings, church pastor Terry Jones said his congregation would go ahead with the event.
Top officials in the Obama administration, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder have denounced Jones’ plans, but leading Republicans are refusing to comment. MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann reported last night that he asked top GOPers — including President Bush, House Minority Leader John Boehner (OH), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY), Sens. John McCain (AZ), Lindsey Graham (SC), Jeff Sessions (AL), and Susan Collins (ME), Rep. Eric Cantor (VA), Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, and Liz Cheney — if they would condemn Jones’ Quran burning in light of Petraeus’ remarks but none would offer any comment:
OLBERMANN: And so, today, Countdown asked several Republican politicians if they now, as they have in the past, urged Americans to listen to General Petraeus and support what he needs to win the hearts and minds of an Islamic country. … [We received] total silence today.
Watch
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/09/08/republicans-silent-quran-burning/
rikyrah
I learned this from the Obama campaign in 2008!
by lutznancy [Subscribe]
Sun Sep 05, 2010 at 03:38:44 PM PDT
Both my husband and I worked really hard in Tampa, FL for the election of President Obama. We organized and ran a canvassing operation out of our home to get out the vote. We worked with our local campaign organizers and learned that organization and follow-through can get the job done. We even helped to increase the votes in one precinct in our area by over 50%. And when we WON, we were ecstatic. We realized that we could make a difference. Fast forward to Jacksonville, FL 2010. The City wanted to close our neighborhood library. They cut its hours back from 50 a week to 20 a week on June 19th. And I swung into action, Obama style.
* lutznancy's diary :: ::
*
We moved to Jacksonville a year ago to retire and live a leisurely life, going to the theatre, visiting with our daughter who lives about a mile away, and taking trips every now and then. We moved into an up and coming historic district just outside the downtown area. We had discovered our little neighborhood library and had enjoyed going there to check out materials. It was always pretty crowded. Its 23 computers were always in use and people were browsing for movies, books and other materials.
To our utter surprise we began reading in the paper that the Mayor had ordered that five “inner-core” libraries,including our library, were to have their hours slashed to just 20 a week, and lo and behold on June 19th, that's what happened. I not only couldn't believe it, I was really pissed off. So, I organized.
I visited the neighborhood historical association and asked if they would be interested in taking this on as a project and they said yes. I developed “campaign” flyers and made sure they were plastered up all over our little community, especially in our business district. I organized a steering committee composed of my husband and several volunteers. And then we started recruiting people.
Sitting out in front of the library signing up people to join our Friends of the Library group, getting noticed in the local press and on TV and radio, and organizing public rallies and marches, we got the attention of the City Council and the Library Administration and Library Board of Trustees, those decision makers who had disseminated our library.
We started a telephone system whereby volunteers would call 20 people and inform them of what action we needed to take at any particular time. Sometimes it was calling, emailing and sending letters to the Library Board and Administration or the City Council. Other times it was calling people to rally in front of the library. We always invited the press and they showed up most of the time. This little community had never seen this kind of uproar!
By the end of July, we had over 800 people signed up to become “Friends” of our neighborhood library. We began showing up at Library Board meetings and City Council meetings. We wore our new tee-shirts sporting our new logo. We didn't let up.
On August 26th, the City Council directed the Library Administration to restore the hours at all the five targeted libraries! We won!! By October 1st, we will be up and running again at our neighborhood library.
I credit our experience working with the Obama campaign for our successful organizing know-how. And now we're incorporating into a real “Friends” of the library group, something our library has never had. We will show that we care about our library, so that it won't be threatened again!
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/9/5/899367/-I-learned-this-from-the-Obama-campaign-in-2008
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