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I know better than to go drinking on Sundays, but it's just been one of those weeks, and I figured I'd grab a few beers, no big deal, and then head hone and get some real work done.
Of course, the reason I don't drink on Sundays is because that's when Satan likes to go hang out at my favorite bar - and to be real honest with you, lately Satan's getting to be a real drag to hang out with once he gets drinking.
I mean, it's depressing: he's always talking about how he gets blamed for the economy, even though he claims he has no control over Wall Street, and atheism is a bit of a sore subject - and he's forever complaining about how all his best customers have been outsourcing more and more work to Varsavarti.
But if you think all that's a drag to have to deal with...you should hear him complain about Republican Presidential Politics.
Just came across this; it's new to me, but the created date for the "About" page appears to be from 2007.
http://techrepublican.com/
Articles in the spheres of running a political campaign, marketing, and technology; tagline is "internet and technology strategies for conservatives. get involved." Current list of bloggers:
Meghann Olshefski
Ethan Demme
Vincent Harris
Jordan Raynor
Jeff Vreeland
Phillip Copley
Wesley Donehue
John Brodigan
Todd Herman
Alex Lundry
I recognize one of these people — Vincent Harris — as the CEO of a PR company specializing in conservative political candidates, so I guess that this is both community organizing as well as advertising for him, at least; haven't looked up the others yet.
We have seen some amazing days in Egypt, and it's provided a better lesson than anyone could have ever wanted for how taking action, against long odds, can really get something done.
A secret police mechanism has been pushed aside, an Army has chosen not to attack The People, and a President who was backed by the "full faith and credit" of the US Government on Friday was being told by that same US Government on Tuesday that it's time to go.
The People, in fact, spoke so loudly that Mr. Mubarak has informed Egyptians that he's going to "pursue corruption", which, if taken literally, could eventually look like a puppy chasing its own tail.
The People, however, are unhappy with his answer, and they're speaking even louder yet...even to the point of being willing to take beatings, gunfire, and, believe it or not...camel charges...to make their voices heard.
And that got me to thinking about Social Security.
You know, we are facing the potential for a great big Social Security fight for pretty much the entire term of the 112th Congress-and it seems to me that a series of great big "Cairo-style" marches might be the way to make our voices heard, so that this Congress understands that great big benefit cuts are something that we will not tolerate.
I was very happy in November 2008 watching the results of the Presidential election. Once again we were going to have a Democratic President and Congress; the possibilities seemed to be endless.
Now almost two years later the media and other political "experts" are predicting disaster for the Democratic Party. My problem is that I don't see any reason for this other then the natural midterm fall off. President Obama has done an excellent job in starting the process of getting us out of the recession, taking the first steps to a fair health care system, and he has begun the process of undoing the damage of twenty years of Republican misrule. So how do we reward this good man? He finds himself being called a disaster and one of the worst presidents of all time.
I can understand the Republican strategy in that they will do everything they can to undermine President Obama and the Democratic Party. After all they only care about what is good for the Republican Party and nothing about what is good for the United States. Also I really can't blame the disillusioned citizens who have flocked to the banner of the tea party and other groups. They are scared by the economic and security situation we find ourselves in and don't really understanding it. As a result they believe the massive lies sent out by the Republicans and others.
I blame us. Those of us who call ourselves Democrats but in an effort to get elected turn our backs on the President and many of the traditional ideals of the Democratic Party. I find some campaign ads to be, not only disgusting, but ineffective. We are Democrats but some of these campaign statements are pushing Republican Party ideas. One Democratic candidate has even call for the reestablishment of the Gramm-Rudman Act, a landmark on the Reagan/Bush era.
How about suggesting some of President Clinton's economic reforms? After all those policies led to a reduction of $600 billion dollars on the national debt. Bush 43 comes into office, scraps the Clinton budget and more than doubles the national debt. And we let these guys call us "tax and spend!" The Republicans claim that they are going to reduce taxes, increase military spending and reduce the deficit all at the same time. Even an idiot knows that you can't do this!
I think that we need to get off of this policy of trying to out Republican the Republicans and go on the offensive pushing the Democratic agenda. Right now it looks like someone polls on an issue and then candidates back the most popular result regardless whether this is best for the county. Following the polls is the opposite of leadership and the country needs leadership. The republicans sound like leaders, we don't. We need to get away from these polls and provide the leadership needed to get us out of the Republican created mess.
It isn't too late to change to an aggressive issue based campaign. The Republican's "Pledge to America" gives us an opportunity to show the Republican "Pledge" for what it is an ill conceived disaster.
A user named Ole Ole Olson at The Public Record has posted an article detailing extensive manipulation of the link sharing social media site Digg.com by multiple groups of conservative, right-wing individuals as uncovered by a team of investigators.
The Rigging Of Digg
How A Covert Mob Of Conservatives Hijacked The Web's Top Social News Site
Anne Applebaum is no liberal, but even she can see that there is a limit to how much misinformation we can digest.
Parties, of course, can change; politicians can see the light; lessons can be learned; and perhaps some Republicans have learned them. But you cannot start from scratch. You cannot forget history. You cannot pretend that the Republican Party has not supported big and wasteful spending programs -- energy subsidies, farm subsidies, unnecessary homeland security projects, profligate defense contracts, you name it -- for the past decade. Before the GOP can have credibility on any spending issues whatsoever, Republican leaders need to speak frankly about the mistakes of the past.
So I was bumming around browsing the web earlier and I decided to click on RedHampshire's "Terms of Use" link to see what rights I'd signed away when I joined the site. I was greeted by this:
7. Limitation of Liability. Except as might be stated otherwise, neither RedHampshire, a subdivision of Eagle Publishing, Inc. nor any of its directors, employees, affiliates, associates or any other representatives will be liable for damages...
We have already seen some impressive efforts in this campaign season to do a bit of résumé padding, particularly as it regards things military; so far Illinois' Mark Kirk has managed to turn himself into a kind of camouflage Austin Powers, while Connecticut's Richard Blumenthal's trying to catch up with some "Vietnam" service of his own that no one else in the theater of operations exactly knew about.
But now, in the race for Alabama Governor, we may have seen something that takes us to a whole new level of "inflation": the Republican candidate is running an ad that not only suggests that he served in Vietnam...it seems to imply that he actually died there, and has now come back to save the State.
Which is some serious irony indeed, considering that the candidate is actually a medical doctor.
And with that, let me introduce you to the either living...or undead...Dr. Robert J. Bentley.
It wasn't but a couple of days ago that we had a conversation about The Fear and the emails that are used to spread it, and I figured with that out of the way we had dealt with the topic, and that we'd move on to new things.
Well, we would be moving on, Gentle Reader, if it wasn't for the fact that an email came in today that was so ugly, so disturbing, and so indicative of what we are about to see as the battle over the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) begins to heat up (ENDA being possibly the next "big contentious thing" that this Administration hopes to accomplish), that I had to interrupt my story schedule to bring it to your attention.
Not a whole lot of separate text I need to put here. A right-winger has posted to their Twitter account an explicit call for the assassination of President Obama.
http://jezebel.com/5498461/con...
Yeah. This is the mindset of the right these days.
When FiveThirtyEight's Nat Silver writes about the National Republican Party, his words work just as well as a perfect description of my very favorite Zero-Population-Growth reject John Sununu the Elder:
Big Papi Sununu is nothing more than a grumpy, searching, direction-less, leadership-deficient, infighting naysayer offering no new ideas, too much feigned outrage, and opposition largely for opposition's sake - all as he steadily loses his grasp on the attentions and imaginations of New Hampshire voters...
CONCORD - Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley today issued the following statement regarding the GOP's plan for more unspecified budget cuts:
"After months of hearings, Democratic leaders crafted a responsible and balanced budget while Republicans sat back and admittedly refused to be 'fully involved' in the process. Now as the eleventh hour approaches, Republicans have buckled to political pressure and put forward an irresponsible plan for unspecified cuts. If adopted, their plan would downshift costs and spell $100 million in new taxes for property owners.
"Today, Republicans offered too little, too late. It's time for them to stop using political gimmicks to appear engaged in the process and actually do the job they were elected to do.
"A 7 percent across-the-board cut isn't a budget plan, it's a back door property tax increase. Saddling property owners with the burden of balancing the state budget is not only irresponsible, it's plain wrong. Homeowners shouldn't be forced to pay for the GOP's lack of ideas or leadership."
(Posted by Victoria Bonney, Communications Director at the New Hampshire Democratic Party)
Republicans Still Can't Say How They Would to Trim Budget
CONCORD - For months, Republicans have called for cuts to the state budget but still can't name a specific area of the budget that needs trimming.
Today, New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley said enough is enough and again challenged Republican legislators to name their cuts or support the balanced budget proposal put forth by Democratic Leadership.
"If there is fat left in the state budget, Republican legislators should name it. Democratic Leaders have rolled up their sleeves and gone to work, cutting the budget line by line while Republicans have sat back and offered no solutions. It's time for Republicans to stop playing petty politics with our state finances and name their cuts," said NHDP Chairman Raymond Buckley.
With 2010 revenues projected lower than 2004 levels, Democrats have carefully scrutinized over the budget and outlined significant cuts to make up for the revenue shortfall. Their proposed cuts include:
· Reducing to the state's workforce by five percent
· Unfunding 200 state positions
· Extending the public employee hiring freeze for the next two years
· Eliminating a half dozen health and human service programs
· Freezes on travel and equipment purchases
· Closure of five district courthouses and the Laconia State Prison
Still, Republicans claim there is room to cut, but remain unwilling to name specific programs or areas to eliminate from the budget.
(Posted by Victoria Bonney, Communications Director for the New Hampshire Democratic Party)
Yesterday State Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley called on NHGOP Chairman John H. Sununu and Republican Legislators to support an amendment to the marriage equality bill which would protect religious freedom. But today John H. Sununu took to the airwaves and told WGIR AM listeners that the amendment to provide additional religious protections is "trivial."
"The amendment to the marriage equality bill goes a long way to protect religious freedom, but John Sununu has chosen politics over the rights of religious organizations and has even gone so far as to call their rights "trivial." Do Republican leaders really want to be on record opposing protections for churches and clergy?" said New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley.
During the course of the debate surrounding marriage equality John H. Sununu referred to the legislation as "radical" while polls conducted at the same time made clear that 55 percent of all New Hampshire residents and one third of Granite State Republicans support marriage equality. Now after amendments to the bill were introduced which would go even farther to protect the views of religious groups, Chairman Sununu and Senate Republicans remain opposed and out of step with the people of New Hampshire.
(Posted by Victoria Bonney, Communications Director for the New Hampshire Democratic Party)
Students of Freud are familiar with his theories on personality development, specifically the stages through which children evolve. We've all heard about the 'id', the 'ego' and 'libido'. Freud further describes stages of development that we all go through: the oral, the anal, the genital and the latent stage.
Freud asserts that if the child successfully completes all stages of personality development, the result will be a healthy and balanced adult. If, on the other hand, certain childhood issues are not resolved, the adult will be obsessed with specific areas of behavior. Those who do not resolve 'oral' issues, for example, may become fixated on smoking, drinking or over-eating.
Individuals who have difficulties with the 'anal' stage of development become fixated on bowel and bladder movements. They become focused on toilet and elimination issues and may have problems with excretory control. An anal-retentive or anal-explosive personality may be the result of this thwarted development.
The recent NH GOP's obsession with bathroom and toileting matters may best be explained by reference to Freud's theories. This seems the clearest explanation for the party's obsessive behavior.
There's a furor a-brewing in Conway. The Conway Selectmen (that's right - 5 men) voted 4-1 against recommending that any town monies go to our local non-profit that works with, shelters, and provides support for victims of domestic and/or sexual violence. Crow Dickinson, former state rep. remarked that a lot of women use domestic violence as a "gimmick" in divorces.
I'm beginning to understand why voters sent him to Concord for so many years. They wanted to get his dinosaur ass out of town for at least part of the year.
AP story
The Conway Daily Sun is behind a paywall - but there are some quotes from articles printed in the last two days (along with some pithy commentary) on my blog.
http://susanthebruce.blogspot....
(I've been following Gregg's 111th pretty closely, and I think the picture is a little more nuanced than Nate notes from his national lens. But more when I can articulate it... - promoted by Dean Barker)
Kos had a little blip in the open thread about Senator Gregg today. To paraphrase, he said Gregg must be pretty worried about his seat, because
the normally conservative senator has become one of Obama's most reliable Republican votes.
