There is a good summary in Kos which describes just what we are facing this year. It is not a normal election.
For the unobservant, what's happening this November is just another in two centuries of mid-term elections. The press is already dusting off their talks from past cycles, ready to note how the numbers of each party in the House and Senate have been altered. They expect to devote an hour -- maybe two -- to highlighting what these changes say about the popularity of the president. They may go so far as to discuss how the results affect the fate of some bit of legislation (but don't count on it). You can bet that have some absolutely spectacular new charts prepared to show poll results and the rearrangement of seats in the legislative chambers. ...
More important even than the election of Barack Obama in 2008. Because the ideas put forward by men like Glenn Beck are not "just like fascism," they simply are fascism. It's the idea that personality can outweigh facts, and that force can author "justice" as well as any law. It's the conviction that those with hard-won knowledge are dangerous, and need to be overruled by "common sense." It's the view that history has an unfortunate bias, one that can be adjusted with a careful "correction" of the textbooks. It's the doctrine that only a portion of the populace is Real Americans deserving of liberty, and the rest must be dealt with as enemies. ...
We've been told, and polling data reflects, an "enthusiasm gap" between those who saw Barack Obama into office in 2008, and those who want to unseat him. Those massing on the right -- the birthers, Beckers, and baggers -- smell blood in the water. They've already seized the Republican Party and they mean to seize the nation. Somehow, for those not part of that movement, this election remains just another election. If that's going to change in the few short weeks that remain, it's going to have to be because some were willing to work, to raise the alarm, and to elevate what's at stake beyond a squabble between "left" vs. "right."
I agree. It is not about holding up Obama's popularity. It is about pushing back American fascism wrapped in the flag and waving a cross. Somehow our electorate must wake up, unless they really want to see the truth to Orwell's 1984.
Consider some of Dog's tormentors from the right, and read what they say.
From embryos to health care, from a failed laissez faire ideology to changing history books to suit a mindless belief, our religiosists and their wealthy handlers have been campaigning for a very long time. Do you want to live in a fascist christianist state? If not, get out our voters.
9/11 was Pearl Harbor, World War II popular songs,
Remember the Maine
All these and more were the propaganda dreams of militarist right wing, most of whom never served a day in their lives in the US military and certainly would not encourage their good, intelligent children to do so. They are followers of Dick "I had better things to do" Cheney and hope to get in on the looting of another middle eastern country, as their friends and relatives did in the Green Zone all in the tradition of Romans in the First Century BC.
All of this is fine and good, but it neither wins wars nor advances the United States of America, so consider
No taxes were raised to pay for the invasion of Iraq because "the oil would pay for it". In fact, taxes were lowered in the full knowledge that a military exercise would take place. Dishonorable and stupid.
"They would greet us with flowers", except we stayed so we could loot Iraq's resources. At least Rome's leadership took tribute and let the city-states they defeated continue their lives.
There was a clear intent to invade without the tools to govern, even though there is a general staff position called "Civil Affairs" in all division and higher military organizations within the US Army and USMC which is designed to assure continuity or creation of governments in defeated areas. But, those estimates of resources needed by a general officer were "far overstated".
Iraq did not let the British off easily from the end of WWI until the Hashimite kings were removed by a military coup in 1958.
We have spent over 1,000,000,000,000 United Stated Dollars in the past 8 years to accomplish this "without cost" effort.
The "Holy of Holies" at World Trade Center Plaza is only a symbol to create more anger and to elect Teabag Republicans who would have our country invade or, at minimum bomb, hopefully with nuclear weapons, Iran, ignoring the damage which such an action would bring. There has always been a loud segment of this group, and they get media attention because of their outrageous rhetoric. All we have to do is to listen to five seconds of Tom Tancredo, another "too busy to serve" chickenhawk, to see one of their leaders.
They are like the polluting industrialist who pours poison into the water supply and lets the down stream residents worry about cleaning up the polluters' mess.
This whole outrage is a well-designed advertising-propaganda campaign aimed at the large uninformed American electorate to help the Republicans gain political power where they can once again loot the Treasury through privatized outsourced contracting of government services at the expense of the taxpayers and the greatly needed and failing infrastructure. Who would have guessed that Americans would support this kind of Soviet-style stupidity.
Maybe it is time to start reminding voters of this.
Tea Party favorite Ken Buck has won the Republican Senate nomination in Colorado. He'll face Sen. Michael Bennet in November. The TPM Poll Average gives Buck a lead of 45.6%-43.2% over Bennet.
It will be a tough race. There are a lot of bruised feelings, a lot of money and enthusiasm has been sucked out of the other campaigns to support this senatorial primary. I hope that the Bennet campaign is able to reach out to those 46% of the Democrats who did not support his nomination. This is not a shoo-in race, and the Denver metro activist dems will have to be activated. If they stay home, we can forget the other statewide races, redistricting, fixing our state and all the work which began in 2004. It will not fun to live in Mississippi West.
At the annual Hiroshima Peace Ceremony on Friday, this year marking the 65th anniversary of the dropping of the atom bomb, representatives from Britain, France and the United States planned to be in attendance, for the first time. This is a public event at which government leaders give speeches, but it also has a more profound and private aspect, as the atomic bomb survivors offer ritual consolation to the spirits of their dead relatives. Of all the official events that have been created during the past 200 years of modernization, the peace ceremony has the greatest degree of moral seriousness.
I'm using the term "moral seriousness" deliberately here, to echo a passage in the speech President Obama delivered in Prague in April 2009. "As the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon," he said, "the United States has a moral responsibility to act." The president's call is yet another indication that a sense of crisis is germinating, fueled by a growing awareness that if decisive steps are not taken, before long the possession of nuclear weapons will not be limited to a few privileged countries.
Mr. Obama's Prague speech reflected the sentiments expressed previously by George Shultz, William Perry, Henry Kissinger and Sam Nunn in a 2007 article for The Wall Street Journal titled "A World Free of Nuclear Weapons." They wrote: "Deterrence continues to be a relevant consideration for many states with regard to threats from other states. But reliance on nuclear weapons for this purpose is becoming increasingly hazardous and decreasingly effective."
As Secretary of State, I fully support this bill (the MOVE Act) and the efforts to aid our troops as they protect our country. In fact, well before this bill, I worked with Rep. Marsha Looper in 2009 to pass HB 09-1205 to improve access for military and other overseas voters. We are piloting with El Paso county to improve online delivery of ballots to our military and overseas voters for the current primary election.
But now the attacks against me have begun.
Because of some technicalities with this law, our county clerks would find it impossible to carry out one part of the law that requires ballots to be mailed 45 days before the election. Because Colorado has one of the latest primaries, it is not possible for the County Clerks to certify the results of the primary and then get the ballots for the general certified more than 45 days before the election. As soon as the MOVE Act was signed into law, I wrote an opinion piece supporting this new law - but noting that the date of our primary makes it impossible to implement in 2010.
When I presented my priorities to the Colorado Legislature during this past session, I expressed my concerns about the primary date. I asked the legislature to consider changing the time for the primary and notified them that if this was not done, we would need to ask for a waiver for 2010.
The current outcry from some of our legislators who are criticizing me are those same legislators who heard me express my concerns after this bill was signed. Weren't they listening? Or are they trying to manufacture something for purely political, partisan reasons?
It's typical for the smarmy, smearing Republicans in Colorado who have no interest in governing, only gaining and keeping power so that they can live off the public tax roles while they suppress others. Get our voters out and prevent their further destruction of our state.
Kaiser Health has posted new poll up which show just how much the Fox unNews and other right wing memes have disturbed those most apt to vote on misinformation.
[L]arge shares of seniors mistakenly believe the law includes provisions that cut some previously universal Medicare benefits and creates "death panels." Half of seniors (50%) say the law will cut benefits that were previously provided to all people on Medicare, and more than a third (36%) incorrectly believe the law will "allow a government panel to make decisions about end-of-life care for people on Medicare."
Sadly, those on or close to Medicare respond
52% are aware that the new law will result in premium increases for some higher income Medicare beneficiaries
50% know that HCR will gradually close Medicare's "doughnut hole"
33% know the law will eliminate Medicare's co-pays and deductibles for some preventive services.?
Despite Medicare's actuaries predicting that the health reform law will extend the life of the Medicare Part A Trust Fund by 12 years (from 2017 to 2029), only 14 percent of seniors know this and nearly half (45%) of seniors think the health reform law will weaken the financial condition of the fund.?
Beyond that sad response, is some better news:
Half the public (50%) now expresses a favorable view of the law, while 35 percent say they have an unfavorable opinion (down from 41% in June).??
Among Republicans, opposition to the law remained steady at 69 percent, but the intensity of that opposition ticked upward. Fifty-three percent of Republicans said they had a "very unfavorable" opinion of the law this month, up from 50 percent in June. Independents, who can tip the balance in elections, split 48 percent to 37 percent in favor, compared with 49 percent to 41 percent a month earlier. The intensity of opinion among this group showed little change; just less than a fifth expressed a very favorable view, and just more than a quarter expressed a very unfavorable view.
We need to work to turn this around for this key voting segment, otherwise we will see both opposition to Colorado reform as well as a Palin-Boehner-McConnell cessation and repeal for any reform. It starts with one voter at a time. Remind those you know why they should vote and why it's important.
The Republican mouthpieces have been making some stir around the country that a great many more resources would have been available to help with the oil gusher's pollution recovery but can not because of the Jones Act which requires US crews and US ships provide sea transport between U.S. ports. It is not true, as CNBC's Mark Haines notes here:
I think it is very important to refute these false claims as they appear, even if it is a "Whack-a-Mole" exercise. We lost the message with the Republican riots at town hall meetings last summer, and it nearly cost us the Health Care bill. Let's not let that happen again.
In a strange exchange with the Colorado Statesman, Norton claimed she couldn't recall the job title she held during her months working as director of state government relations for AARP. "It was so short, I think it was even less than a six-month stint," she said. "So that might have been why. But I can't even remember what -- May I get back with you on that and call you on it?"
The Statesman soon heard back from Norton's spokesperson, who said that from December 1993 to March 1994 Norton "did member education on health and consumer issues."
This is the kind of honesty we hear from the Republican politicians. Let's make sure that she and her kind can keep on doing "member education" rather than implementing it.
When you run against the government, you won't govern when you win. We saw this with the Bush packing of various federal agencies designed to prevent financial meltdowns, recover from hurricanes, assure worker safety, and protect the environment, including endangered species.
signed off on the Minerals Management Service's conclusion that deepwater drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico posed no significant risk to wildlife, despite evidence that a spill of even moderate size could be disastrous, according to federal documents.
By law, the minerals service, before selling oil leases in the gulf, must submit an evaluation of the potential biological impact on threatened species to the Fish and Wildlife Service, whose responsibilities include protecting endangered species on land. Although the wildlife agency cannot block lease sales, it can ask for changes in the assessment if it believes it is inadequate, or it can insist on conducting its own survey of potential threats, something the agency has frequently done in the past. ...the wildlife agency agreed with the minerals service's characterization that the chances that deepwater drilling would result in a spill that would pollute critical habitat was "low."
Why did this happen? Is it the "fault" of the Obama Administration or the 8 years of anti-regulation in all areas we have seen by the Republican officeholders and their appointed hatchets?
Eight years ago, some of us noted that the Bush Administration was not "governing" but using the massive US government much as "Chainsaw Al" did as he took over once-solid US corporations and dismantled their core competencies for short term gain. In short, a Takeover. Yes, there is a total failure of regulatory behavior in many industries which can be laid at the feet of our government's regulatory agencies whose direction was set by the Bush Republicans. The failure lays with the systemic redirection of those agencies by the salting of lower level administrators and appointees throughout the government.
As an example, of this, consider the untrained flack at NASA who forbade publishing of climate change papers without "review" in scholarly journals? Who remembers the packing of US Attorneys at the behest of Carl Rove or the earlier silencing of civil rights lawyers in the US Attorney General's office prior to the 2002 elections? The present day Republicans have demonstrated that they are not interested in governing, only holding power for the sake of their financial masters, and many would call this corruption.
Now carry this to the Fish & Wildlife Service's approval of the deep water drilling plans:
In its 71-page biological assessment, the Minerals Management Service concluded that the chances of oil from a spill larger than 1,000 barrels reaching critical habitat within 10 days could be more than 1 in 4 for the piping plover and the bald eagle, as high as 1 in 6 for the brown pelican and almost 1 in 10 for the Kemp's ridley sea turtle. When the model was extended to 30 days, the assessment predicted even higher likelihoods of habitat pollution.
and
"We all know an oil spill is catastrophic, but what is the likelihood it will happen?" Deborah Fuller[the endangered species program coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service's office in Lafayette, La.] ... asked. She said her office had considered that any likelihood under 50 percent would not be enough to require the protections of her office.
This kind of thing has to be stopped. The laws are in place. But, the Republican party of the 21st Century is interested only in furthering its power and its "leaders" wealth through bribing jobs in their "regulated" industries and using their U.S. Senate filibustering veto when new administrator are nominated or reform is proposed. We may not be happy with our current crop of Democratic candidates or office holders, but we have to keep the Republican party of destruction from further harming our country.
If you think for a moment that this is a "national" matter, read the Colorado Republican candidates' positions on regulation in Colorado and know that our state can be as seriously devastated as the Gulf by their corrupt behavior. Keep them out. Convince voters, one at a time, if need be. But, get our voters to vote and save our country and our state.
The underlying problem isn't simply lower Asian costs. It's our own misplaced faith in the power of startups to create U.S. jobs. Americans love the idea of the guys in the garage inventing something that changes the world. New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman recently encapsulated this view in a piece called "Start-Ups, Not Bailouts." His argument: Let tired old companies that do commodity manufacturing die if they have to. If Washington really wants to create jobs, he wrote, it should back startups.
Mythical Moment
Friedman is wrong. Startups are a wonderful thing, but they cannot by themselves increase tech employment. Equally important is what comes after that mythical moment of creation in the garage, as technology goes from prototype to mass production. This is the phase where companies scale up. They work out design details, figure out how to make things affordably, build factories, and hire people by the thousands. Scaling is hard work but necessary to make innovation matter.
The scaling process is no longer happening in the U.S. And as long as that's the case, plowing capital into young companies that build their factories elsewhere will continue to yield a bad return in terms of American jobs.
What Grove means here is that the major portion of the wealth created by new businesses, especially technology businesses, including machinery, aircraft, other precision devices, as well as semiconductors, photonics, medical devices, advanced materials and some kinds of software, will not grow American jobs without their production remaining in the United States.
As one who has hired and managed a reasonably large number of employees at all levels, I have often wondered about the value of credit checks for potential employees. It seems to me that providing credit information to a potential employer is information not needed to judge the fitness or non-fitness of a prospective employee. The Oregon legislature and governor seems to agree.
Under the new law, Oregon employers will no longer be able to use credit history as a factor in hiring, firing, demoting or suspending employees, unless they can establish that it's substantially related to the job
The law originated from a concern that credit histories could be inaccurate or unfairly represent job seekers down on their luck, said Sen. Diane Rosenbaum, D-Portland,who sponsored the bill. Oregon unemployment is hovering around 10.6 percent, and people don't need another factor standing between them and a job, she said.
The Republican Governors Association has announced a very strong fundraising quarter, taking in $19 million from April through June -- their largest fundraising quarter ever -- with $40 million in cash on hand for this year's statehouse races.
From the RGA's press release: "The RGA's previous largest fundraising quarter occurred in the 4th quarter of 2009, when it raised $11.9 million. This quarter RGA raised $18.9 million. The RGA's former mid-year fundraising record was $15.1 million. RGA is at $28 million this year - almost double the earlier record. In 2006, the last comparable election year, the RGA raised $28 million for the entire year." (Emphasis in the original.)
We can overcome cash advantages with grass roots efforts and good candidates. Let's all get behind Hick and work on convincing the unconvinced that a return to Republican control can harm all of Colorado. With redistricting and budgets on the table, it's hugely important.
Corporations invest in states that invest in themselves__Chris Romer
Stan Garnett is the Democratic candidate for Colorado Attorney General. He addressed the Democrats of HD6B at the Windsor Gardens Democratic Club last night and had this to say
Government can work, meaning that it can provide a wall for the unempowered; but it needs to be competent to do so.
Protection of water, environment, small people and business is high on his agenda: only 8 of 244 lawyers in the AG's office currently work on consumer, credit or charity fraud, though the case load there is high.
The AG needs to be nonpartisan. Attorney General Sutter has been filing support cases in Florida in support of a state suit there to overturn the health care bill at a cost of "only"$5000 (when the state is cutting essential services), a Kansas state death penalty lawsuit, California and Nebraska gay marriage lawsuits, Pledge of Allegiance lawsuits in Virginia, Chicago handgun regulation suits on behalf of the NRA and energy industry lawsuits opposing EPA regulation.
He has a resume of experience in managing and directing lawyers both as a district attorney and as the managing counsel of a multi-lawyer private practice. He has demonstrated that he can bring efficiency to this office and meet his goals of support for the ordinary people of this state.
We need to remind our voters to vote all the way down ballot this year, including Attorney General, Treasurer and Secretary of State. If not, we will see more costly litigatious delays, such as those imposed on school districts which are trying to get equal treatment under Colorado law but finding themselves in court, facing an Attorney General whose office is appealing every step of the way. This takes money from the local schools affected and gets our state no where beyond less educated children.
Joe Barton represents Texas' 6th district, Arlington, Ft Worth and some of the countryside running southeast of Dallas, much connected to the exploration and production portion of the oil and gas industry in the US. He makes some very stupid statements, including apologizing to BP executives for the US government's instance on paying for some of the damage its management caused with its "industrial accident" in the Gulf of Mexico.
Today, Vice President Joe Biden was asked about this Congressman's statement. This is what he said.
Among other things, VP Biden noted that a way of life in Louisiana has been severely damaged, and this $20 billion is to be used to pay some of those who are badly harmed through no fault of their own, something of the losses they have experienced.
"I find it incredibly insensitive, incredibly out of touch."
"There's no shakedown," he says. "I find it outrageous to suggest that if in fact we insisted that BP demonstrate their preparedness to put aside billions of dollars ... to take care of the immediate needs of people who are drowning."
Speaking of Gulf residents, he says, "these guys don't have deep pockets." He adds that Barton's comment was "astounding."
One of the reasons we need to elect Democrats up and down ballot in this upcoming lection cycle is to prevent the Joe Barton's from again gaining power over the rest of us.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday barred officials in Arizona from providing matching funds to candidates for state office who accept public financing, a program meant to help them keep pace with the unlimited spending of candidates who do not take public financing.
Campaign finance specialists said the Supreme Court's move would have major consequences for elections this year in Arizona, where many candidates participate in the public financing system. Under a 1998 state law, candidates who agree to restrictions on private fund-raising are provided with a fixed base amount of public financing as well as matching funds based on spending by candidates not participating in the program.
...
The Supreme Court's stay will probably remain in effect through the state's primary elections in August and the general election in November.
The court instructed the candidates challenging the matching fund law to file a prompt appeal. If the court agrees to hear the case, as is likely, it is unlikely to be argued and decided before November. ...
Brought to us by the Justice who supported the Supreme Court's appointment of George W Bush to the US presidency in 2000 and permissions of corporate funding of political campaigns in 2009, this order effectively bars any public funding for candidates in states where this practice has been the norm for more than a decade.
Regardless of how this is decided in the full court (and I can not imagine a pro-people funding decision by the current men who make up the majority), it effectively moots Clean Campaigns Colorado's effort for reform.
We are going to have to hang together this year and in 2012 if we expect to see an America which had been a shining city upon a hill not become the right-wing fascist state for which 20-30% hunger.
We need to know more about the funding source of this group, publicize its inaccurate estimates of jobs lost. Jobs were lost in Colorado and the United States due to the no-tax, no-regulation policies of the Republicans, and they need to be painted with this.
The New York Times'Linda Greenhouse offered a succinct suggestion for action on this matter:
So what to do in the meantime? Here's a modest proposal. remembers the wartime Danish king who drove through Copenhagen wearing a Star of David in support of his Jewish subjects. It's an apocryphal story, actually, but an inspiring one. Let the good people of Arizona - and anyone passing through - walk the streets of Tucson and Phoenix wearing buttons that say: I Could Be Illegal.
Or, we could just say "no" to Arizona tourism and products AND make sure that those who would usurp free passage by citizenry never, ever get control of our State Legislature once again. Work for progressive candidates and help us get out our vote.
The old site had a number of diaries about our Blue Dogs, Betsy Markey and John Salazar. They both desreve our support and thanks for making Health Care Reform possible. Certainly, the teabaggers and our right wingers will try to drive them from Congress because of their votes. They need our thanks. ActBlue's site for each is at
