I can't wait to see just how much of a pretzel Charlie Crist turns himself into trying with his flip flops ahead of the general election lol.
Crist's post-primary troubles began Friday, when he told an Orlando television station that he would have voted for the major health care overhaul passed by Congress, contradicting his previous opposition to the plan. Two hours later, his campaign issued a statement that said he "misspoke."
These kind of clarifications can damage a candidate's credibility in today's fast-paced, round-the-clock news cycle, when every nuance is recorded and scrutinized on the Internet.
Another one came Sunday, after Crist told CNN that he continued to favor a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage but that he's a "live-and-let-live kind of guy." He said, "I think if partners want to have the opportunity to live together, I don't have a problem with that."
Later, his campaign put out a statement that said Crist was reaffirming his support for Florida's ban but that he does not favor adding a similar ban to the U.S. Constitution.
"I am fully supportive of civil unions and will continue to be as a United States senator, but believe marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman," the statement added.
Meek's campaign jumped on Crist's support for the state ban and argued that it could jeopardize civil unions. In other words, how could Crist back both? Proponents of the gay marriage ban, which voters approved in 2008, said it would not affect domestic partnerships, but the matter has not been tested in court.
Still another issue on which Crist is taking heat: refunding money to donors unhappy over his exit from the Republican Party four months ago. Crist recently made an exception to his no-refund policy when he heeded a request from ex-state party chairman Jim Greer, who is facing fraud charges.
Crist said Sunday on CNN: "We'll give it back to people who had asked for it." But then he hedged: "People gave money to a good cause, I'm going to spend it on a good cause and that's how I feel about it."
Still, the arm of the Republican Party that oversees Senate races said it wanted to take Crist up on his offer, however tentative.
"We look forward to getting our money back before you change your position again," sneered Rob Jesmer, executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Jesmer referenced Crist's flip-flop on offshore oil drilling, which he seemed open to during the 2008 presidential campaign, when John McCain considered him as a running mate amid Republican cries of "Drill baby drill!'' But after the huge gulf oil spill, Crist called for a constitutional ban on coastal exploration.
This guy might literally spontaneously combust durng one of the debates lol
If you don't think Orrin Hatch coming out in support of the right of the Park 51 organizers to build the Muslim center in the Burlington factor two blocks from ground zero will come back to haunt him with the wingnut base of the GOP you have lost your damn mind.
But instead of holding his tongue or worse pulling a Harry Reid and feeding the hate mongerers he actually stood on principle and endorsed at least the idea of the project because it falls squarely under the purview of the 1st amendment.
"I just think what's made this country great is we have religious freedom. That's not the only thing, but it's one of the most important things in the Constitution. [...]
"There's a question of whether it's too close to the 9/11 area, but it's a few blocks away, it isn't right there.... And there's a huge, I think, lack of support throughout the country for Islam to build that mosque there, but that should not make a difference if they decide to do it. I'd be the first to stand up for their rights."
It disgusts me how many Democrats don't have the courage to do the same...
Chubby Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey and the latest GOP "golden boy" came out and blasted the Obama administration this week because his state lost out on "Race to the Top" money in the hundreds of million for education all because of a clerical error.
Turns out it was actually all Christie's education commissioner's fault.
It also turns out he was caught on tape screwing it up.
So now Christie has fired him (the guy, who is a Republican, wanted to be fired rather than resign so he could get unemployment, go figure)to show he's "accountable".
Well if he was really accountable he would go on TV and apologize to the Obama administration.
I won't hold my breath though...
A clerical mistake in the state’s grant application had led the state to come up short by just three points in the high-stakes competition, known as Race to the Top. Mr. Christie had defended his administration’s actions on Wednesday, in part by insisting that Mr. Schundler had provided the correct information to federal reviewers in an interview two weeks ago.
But federal officials released a video on Thursday showing that Mr. Schundler and his administration had not provided the information when asked. Mr. Christie, asked later Thursday about the videotape in a radio interview, said he would be seriously disappointed if it turned out he had been misled.
That same evening, the governor’s chief of staff, Richard H. Bagger, called Mr. Schundler to ask for his resignation, Mr. Schundler said in an interview.
Mr. Schundler said he told Mr. Bagger that he was willing to resign. “I said I know that I serve at the will of the governor, so if he would like me to leave I would leave,” he said.
But on Friday morning, Mr. Schundler said, he asked Mr. Bagger if he could instead be fired, citing his need for the unemployment benefits.
I've avoided posting about Glenn Beck's repugnant attempt to hijack Martin Luther King's legacy with his bullshit speech this weekend because I didn't want to give it any more attention and I didn't want to burst a blood vessel pounding my keyboard as I slung venom in his direction.
Thankfully Jon Stewart kicked him square in the nuts last night so I don't have to.
Alan Simpson, one of the co chairs of the "Cat Food" Commission whom almost liberal and progressive in the country is convinced will try to cut Social Security, gave all of us an opportunity to get him fired. He made a stupid comment about Social Security being a cow having 310 million tits which was just inartful enough to justify him getting axed but for one thing.
There was no quantifiable outrage.
Oh there were blogs posted and it was mentioned on MSNBC several times, but how many people actually called the White House switchboard to complain?
Not many I would bet.
How many bloggers ASKED their readers to call and complain?
I didn't see any.
I didn't do it because I pretty much missed the story until it was already over today when the White House came out with a statement saying they wouldn't fire Simpson over what he said.
And looking back on it why would they?
At some point liberals and progressives are going to have to wake up to the reality that the wingnuts have this fake controversy shit down pat and they don't get results just by complaining. They get results by exalting their followers to call, email, and fax in their complaints. Until WE start doing the same nobody is going to take us seriously. Its easy to portray the left as the fringe when all they have to do is combat some blog posts. Its a lot damn harder when they have to field an ass load of calls and emails and faxes all on the same subject. That shows, in their mind at least, who really cares about individual issues and who doesnt.
Now to me there is still an outside chance that the White House will be swayed by making a big deal out of what Simpson said. And so
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Please include your e-mail address
Phone Numbers
It only takes a few seconds to call in or send a fax. Just call and politely tell whomever answers that you heard about what Alan Simpson said and you don't think someone who is that intemperate should be heading a commission that will help shape the future of this country's financial health. Or something to that effect. And ask your friends and family members to do the same.
It might seem stupid but think about this, if a few phone calls can help to keep Social Security from being gutted by idealogues like Simpson isn't it worth it?
First of all congratulations go out to Congressman Kendrick Meek for winning last night's Democratic primary down here in Florida. He did it through hard work with a serious grassroots effort and in the end people recognized that he was the only real Democrat in the race.
Now we get to focus on the general election. I realize a lot of people aren't giving Meek a chancce to win but not only do I think he has an excellent shot at winning, I think he WILL win as long as he runs a good campaign.
Here is the way I see things. I'm not a pollster or a mathematician but I believe that if Meek gets 70% of the Democratic vote he will win that Senate seat. The truth is in most elections getting 70% of your own party isn't that hard to do, especially when you have a Congressional record like Meek's. But we all know that Charlie Crist is going to try to sell him self as Democrat lite. The key here is independents HATE Marco Rubio, the GOP nominee. Right now they are backing Crist because they are so scared of Rubio anybody else will do and since Crist already has an early lead they figure why not. But once the polls start to shift and Meek shows he is right there in the mix with both Rubio and Crist the independents will start breaking back his way. Everyone loves a winner and so when Meek starts to pull ahead of Crist you can expect him to take all that momentum, Crist to fall back into the pack and Rubio to be the only competition.
That's exactly how I see this playing out.
So the important question over the next month or so is this, "How will Meek get at least 70% of his own party to vote for him?"
As usual I have some ideas.
First off Crist tipped his hand yesterday when he tried to define Meek as hard left and Rubio as hard right. Its kind of laughable when you think about it but it was a decent political move. Marco Rubio truly is hard right which is why he scares indys, but Meek is just basically a traditional Democrat whose votes fall right in line with most of the people in the party. He hasn't been like Dennis Kucinich calling for a Department of Peace or anything like that. But at the same time he has a very progressive legislative record.
What Crist is going to try to do is make both Rubio and Meek move to the middle where supposedly he is now. Why? Because he knows the more Rubio moves to the middle the more he will lose some of his Tea Bagging base. And he knows the more Meek moves to the middle the more he would look just like Crist which makes it easier for him to hide his true self.
So the most important thing is for Meek to stand on his record, not move to the center, and instead define Crist as somebody who had no principles, nothing to stand on.
Here's a free moniker "Mr Maybe". I think that will sound good in an attack ad.
Here is one campaign trick that will be very effect. Meek's campaign should research every position that Crist has flip flopped on in the last two years, especially those that are important to Democrats (like the stimulus, privatizing social security) and then accuse Crist of holding his former view without acknowledging he has changed his stance. Now of course Crist will protest and fact checkers will rate it as false. But here's the deal, every time that happens voters will be reminded how many times Crist has actually flip flopped on his positions, generally for political gain.
Its much more effective in my opinion than just calling him a flip flopper because you make him acknowledge that he flip flopped or risk having folks thinking he's still a hardcore Republican (and he can't have that). Now that doesn't mean you make stuff up because that WOULD hurt credibility. But positions he has taken in the past are all fair game.
Next its important to draw a contrast between the GOP primary and how Crist handled it with the Dem primary and how Meek handled it. Once Crist's polling looked bad he ran for the hills. Meek on the other hand withstood bad polling and over $20 million dollars in attack ads to get his party's nomination. So do voters want a fighter or a guy who runs from the fight in the Senate representing them?
Also an idea for the premise of an ad is to show a silouette of a vote being taken and a guy with their hand near the button to push yes or no (just yes or no buttons) and his hands keeps going back and forth. And the voice over guy says something to the effect of "When there's a tough vote on a major issue in the Senate that affect's your family do you want someone representing you whose voting record is consistent? Or do you want to have to cross your fingers and hope for the best?" And then fade to black.
Along those same lines many attacks should ostensibly focus on Rubio but have backhanded slaps at Crist. Like "There aren't many things Rubio and I agree on but at least he makes his positions known. So the voters have a clear choice between the two of us and I believe Floridians are on my side". Just hammer away at the fact that while Rubio is dead ass wrong on almost every issue at least he doesn't generally hide what he believes.
Keep in mind that Crist to have a chance to win still has to pull some Republican votes from Rubio so he will necessarily have to remain vague on some issues. The biggest one is probably who he will caucus with. Now I have a feeling that what he will want to do is keep that under wraps until right at the end of the campaign and then announce he will caucus with the Dems as a last minute game changer. The easiest way to make sure that doesn't happen is to get him to say it early.
Here's the deal on that. If he comes out and says it now he loses most of his Republican votes and he falls back some anyway. And considering some of his past statements he will have a very hard time convincing people he will be a reliable Democratic vote. And he pretty much CAN'T say he is going to caucus with the GOP because then all of his Dem votes flock to Meek and he's toast.
So it will be much easier to fight him on the common ground of Dem policies and platforms early and beat him into submission than to shy away from it and allow him to use it as a bombshell later.
You can hammer him for not running in the Dem primary for instance if what he really wants to be is a Democrat. You can point out how the Dem establishment is fully behind the one true Democrat in the race. And you can say things like "why buy the knock off when you can have the real thing". Really it would make life SO much simpler in my opinion.
But the only way to get him to choose is to hammer his ass relentlessly. Keep saying that he wants to dupe Dems into voting for him so he can go to the Senate and caucus with the GOP. Just keep saying it no matter who tells you to stop. And finally he is going to have to choose. He can run as an indy all he wants to but the people deserve to know who he is going to caucus with.
Then point out how much Crist has NOT done for the people of Florida since he first flirted with being McCain's VP choice. Seriously aside froma couple of vetos what has the guy done since then? Unemployment is sky high in Florida. Why isn't Crist screaming for federal aid? Housing crisis is epic. Why isn't Crist doing anything to help homeowners here who are underwater? Health care system he put in place absolutely sucks. Why isn't Crist championing the Affordable Care Act?
Punch him in the mouth about his shitty job as Governor of Florida the last two years and make him answer questions. When being interviewed ask the interviewer why THEY aren't asking Crist those questions.
And lastly use his hand picked Senate choice George LeMeiux as a foil. Every vote LeMeiux has take including those against financial reform and the health care bill should be used to bang Crist for sending him there in the first place. A purely political choice meant to be his personal seatwarmer.
Of course if any scandal should happen to touch LeMeiux that should also fall on Crist as well.
And really after all that the path to victory is wide open. Marco Rubio will make it very easy to beat him with Meek just running on his record and the Democratic platform. With as much of a melting pot as we have here in Florida I just don't think an Arizona immigration law will play well here, and neither will any of the other wacky Tea Bagger policy positions. But Rubio can't run from them for fear of losing his base so he's stuck.
Finally it behooves Meek and all Dems this cycle to not label Rubio and his campaign as far right. When you do that it gives them an opportunity to minimize the attack and it gives Americans a chance to give other Republicans a pass. No what we really want to label Rubio is as a mainstream Republican who has mainstream GOP policy stances that just so happen to scare the hell out of everyone else. But its true that anything Rubio stands for you will find just about all other Republicans running this year who win their nomination stands for the same things. Make fringe ideas = mainstream GOP thought.
Well that's my Meek Manifesto in all its glory. I think right now the most important thing in the near future is that Meek gets his numbers up into at least the mid 20s. The quicker he can start polling at around 25% or better the faster people will jump on the bandwagon IMHO>
So lets get it Florida. Lets turn this state all the way blue!!!
Why would this peaceful crowd protesting Park 51 just pick out some random black guy to yell and scream at for no reason? I mean sure the crowd is lily white and yes I guess a moron might think the guy's clearly marked Under Armor skull cap is some kind of Mooslem apparel but that crowd would have to be pretty racially motivated to do something like that right?
And I mean there weren't any racist in that crowd were there?
Eugene Robinson points out that President Obama has wracked up a string of victories recently (even though nobody has seemed to notice. Just wanted to excerpt this one part.
It's hard to remember that the inauguration was just 19 months ago. Expectations of the new president were absurdly high. If Obama had done back flips across the Potomac River, when he reached the other side he'd have faced probing questions about why it was taking him so long to cure cancer, solve the Arab-Israeli conflict and usher in an age of universal peace and prosperity.
Looks like Sarah Palin's defense of Dr Laura's "right" to say nigger 11 times and just generally be an asshole has not endeared her to many leading black Republicans.
Of course my general feeling is that if you are black and choose to be a Republican you should probably be used to this kinda shit by now.
Just ask Armstrong Williams who put on a masterful job kissing Palin's ass this morning.
Two things came across to me in watching this back and forth between KO and Howard Dean. First Howard Dean's arguments for why they should move the Park 51 project in an effort to "compromise" echoed almost exactly the arguments you hear for why gays should accept civil unions instead of actual marriage or why DADT shouldn't be repealed. In short he never really comes up with a good reason for the people behind the project to accept such a "compromise" other than the fact that other people are upset about it.
One has to wonder how many "compromises" minorities and women would have taken over the years had Dean been in charge. I mean plenty of people were upset about the Civil Rights Act and it even split up a political party. Guess maybe Dean would have said instead of the right to vote we could have "compromised" and just uped it from the slavery days of 3/5ths of a vote to 4/5ths.
SMDH
The second thing is maybe the more stunning revelation for a guy like Dean. After all wasn't it Howard Dean who kept slamming President Obama for continually reaching out his hands to Republicans on the health care bill only to be rebuffed? Now Dean is imagining some sane people opposed to Park 51 who would actually have enough power to negotiate on that side of argument's behalf? Really? Notice that when Keith keeps pressing him on exactly who that is Dean just keeps running from the question. Its because there ISN'T anybody that fits that description. And Dean is quoting from a flawed poll to justify all this bullshit.
Maybe it's just me but I think that interview may have been the end of folks seeing Howard Dean as some kind of progressive lion. You half ass expect this kind of mindless pandering from Harry Reid who is scared shitless of getting booted out of the Senate. But Dean literally had nothing to win with his stance and took it anyway.
Welp, more power to you on that one. And happy trails.
Hey fellow Congressional Dems, see how easy this was?
Franken said conservative opposition to the mosque is “one of the most disgraceful things that I’ve heard.”
“I don’t know how many of you have been to New York, but if a building is two blocks away from anything, you can’t see it. It’s a community center. They’re going to have a gym. They’re going to have point guards. Muslim point guards,” Franken said, to laughter and applause.
“They (Republicans) do this every two years. They try to find a wedge issue, and they try to work it.”
Not only did he NOT bend to the right wing noise machine, he even made a joke out of it.
Maybe they should be going to Franken for their own material...
There's a poll out today that on the face of it looks like bad news for Kendrick Meek as he is once again 3rd in a matchup with Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio at about 16%. But here is what Meek and every other Democrat in the State of Florida should be paying attention to.
In the Senate race against Rubio and Meek, Crist gets 45 percent of the Democrats - more than Meek's 36 percent - and 50 percent of the independent voters. Against Greene, Crist gets 51 percent of the Democrats to Greene's 31 percent, and 48 percent of independent voters.
"Crist is getting more support from Democrats than either Greene or Meek. The key for Crist will be whether he can hold this many Democrats once the party's nomination is settled and keep his half of the independent voters," said Brown.
Crist's lead is built almost entirely on the backs of Democrats. If those Democrats actually vote for a REAL DEMOCRAT Kendrick Meek will smoke both Crist and Rubio.
Now I've heard some Democrats who are supporting Crist say that he only has their support because they think Meek doesn't have a shot of beating Rubio. This poll shows that is a damn lie. If those Democrats come back home Rubio is toast and so is Crist.
So the question is, Democrats, do you want somebody whose vote you can actually count on or do you want another guy who will get to the Senate and obstruct every part of the Democratic agenda from within. That's IF the best case scenario happens and he caucuses with the Democrats. I'm one who still see's Crist as a Republican who will caucus with the GOP which in practical matters makes him no better than Rubio. None at all.
So the question for Democrats in Florida is do you want progress or not? Do you want climate change legislation or not? Do you want Social Security and Medicare to remain as we know them or not? Do you want filibuster reform or not? Do you want health care reform to be implemented or not?
Are you going to vote for the Democratic platform or not?
My advice is this, if you are going to vote for Crist you might as well vote for Rubio because at least then we will be dealing with a wingnut that doesn't hide his hand rather than having another drama queen like Crist just looking for attention whenever there is a big vote.
OR you can as a Democrat support the Democrat and help our country forward.
Dave Weigel finally puts it all together about why conservatives/Republicans are demonizing the Cordoba House project and some of them are still pushing the line that President Obama is a Muslim. Its because they want you to see something other than an American when there's a Muslim involved. Almost implicit in all their fearmongering is that a Muslim, even a moderate one, couldn't possibly hold the same American values as everyone else does.
Funny but I actually remember when the same kind of demonization happened in this country to black people. And Jews. And Irish Catholics.
Its not that I thought we were passed it. Its more than I thought our media and most of our citizens would at least be mindful of history as well.
Paul Krugman keeps nudging Ben Bernanke by reminding him of his own, past statements.
What could the Fed be doing? Back when, Mr. Bernanke suggested, among other things, that the Bank of Japan could get traction by buying large quantities of “nonstandard” assets — that is, assets other than the short-term government debt central banks normally hold. The Fed actually put that idea into practice during the most acute phase of the financial crisis, acquiring, in particular, large amounts of mortgage-backed securities. However, it stopped those purchases in March.
Since then, the economic news has grown steadily worse. And earlier this week, the Fed changed course — but barely. It now says that it will reinvest the proceeds from maturing securities in long-term government bonds. That’s a trivial change, basically the least the Fed could get away with without facing a firestorm of criticism — and far short of the major asset-purchase program the Fed should be undertaking.
Back in 2000, Mr. Bernanke also suggested that the Bank of Japan could move expectations by making announcements about its future policies. In particular, he argued that it could make private-sector borrowing more attractive by announcing that it would keep interest rates low until deflation had given way to 3 percent or 4 percent inflation — an idea originally suggested by yours truly. Since we are, if anything, in worse shape now than Japan was in 2000, an inflation target of at least 3 percent would very much be in America’s interest. But as chairman of the Fed, Mr. Bernanke has explicitly rejected any such move.
What’s going on here? Has Mr. Bernanke been intellectually assimilated by the Fed Borg? I prefer to believe that he’s being political, unwilling to engage in open confrontation with other Fed officials — especially those regional Fed presidents who fear inflation, even with deflation the clear and present danger, and are evidently unmoved by the plight of the unemployed.
I know Krugman get's labeled as shrill but the guy has been spot on for over a year and a half now. We have to hope that at some point one of his columns will spark somebody, anybody to act before deflation takes hold and we really are screwed.
I like reading Greg Sargent's blog over at WaPo and most of the time I agree with his take on things. But this "professional left" flap has shown me that even he can get caught up in defending a meme rather than reporting a story. See Greg knows good and damn well who Robert Gibbs was talking about and he himself has taken shots at firebaggers before, but because he leans left and because I'm sure he knows a lot of those people or maybe just because he wants to keep the story going, he has tried valiantly to super impose the "professional left" with rank and file liberals and progressive. Keep in mind that this is despite the fact that Gibbs SPECIFICALLY made the distinction between the two in the very same article.
But today's Morning Roundup on Sargent's blog had quite the bit of irony.
He links to an article of Josh Greene's totally panning the passage of $26 billion dollars worth of aid to states that the President just signed into law. Somehow I doubt the public servants whose jobs were saved would feel like it was no big deal. Should it have been bigger? Yes. But articles like Green's are exactly why the Obama administration is frustrated with the professional left. If they don't get EVERYTHING they want then they refuse to call ANYTHING a victory.
But right under that link is one to a Paul Krugman article, and get this. Instead of using the phrase "professional left", Greg just uses left when describing Krugman's post as one examining "What exactly does the White House's urinating on the left accomplish?"
So one link shows EXACTLY why the administration is frustrated and the one right after it mischaracterizes who Gibbs was going after in the first place. Gotta love it.
Oh and I like Krugman's writing as well but its obvious that he is covering for some folks too. Instead of defending the Jane Hamshers or Ed Schultzes on the left he points to Rachel Maddow to defend. Now on Afghanistan I'm sure the administration isn't all that happy with Maddow but the truth is they have sent several Cabinet members on her show to speak about the situation there. And on most other issues she has been, up until now, pretty fair in her reporting. So I doubt that Gibbs meant to lump her in with others on the professional left. But see by bringing up Rachel, Krugman makes it about run of the mill lefties rather than the assholes who tried to kill health care reform and are now urging Democrats not to vote in the midterms.
I just hope a lot of people recognize what's really going on here. I gotta say I was proud as hell that Gibbs didn't back down yesterday. He has absolutely nothing to apologize for and what he said was 100% true. Its funny how you can't criticize the criticizers though. Nope, when you turn the tables on their sensitive asses all you hear is bitching and moaning for weeks.
Looks like Jeffery Goldberg is back at it again trying to use his perch as a journalist at The Atlantic to nudge our country closer to war with Iran. I'm betting his is just the first in a bunch of articles the NeoCons will rush to publish in the next few weeks to try to start up a drumbeat towards a military strike. Fortunately or unfortunately depending upon how you look at it, for them I think most of America is all warred out at this point and I don't think absent an attack by Iran on our country that you will find the public amenable to such actions this time around.
At least that's my hope.
Of course one has to wonder just how long The Atlantic will support these efforts which risk making them look complicit....
I really like reading John Cole's blog "Balloon-Juice". He allows a lot of divergent views and its not all left and certainly not all right but mostly about what is right either way. But yesterday he said this and it pissed me off to no end.
I’m pulling for Crist because Meek doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell and Rubio is insane and ignorant.
I keep hearing people who are either Democrats or independents that lean Democrat saying they are supporting Charlie Crist because they don't think Meek has a chance seemingly not realizing that its specifically because of THEIR support that Crist has a lead over Meek in the first place. Logically if all the Democrats in Florida support Meek there is no way Crist or Marco Rubio can win splitting the Republicans and scrambling for independents. Florida did go for President Obama after all.
But right now there is no tangible way to prove this so nobody really believes it. So you keep having these folks who don't seem to get that Crist IS A REPUBLICAN saying dumb shit like it would be ok to get him elected. Howard Dean of all people deemed a Crist victory a win for Democrats.
Really Howard?
The BEST Democrats could hope for if Crist wins is that he would be another Joe Lieberman or Ben Nelson. That's not a win, that's a loss! But more than likely he's going to caucus with Republicans one he gets in, especially if the GOP gains a lot of seats in the Senate. And then guess what, it won't matter how right wing he is or not, he's going to vote Republican because that's what THEIR caucus does.
So here's what I am hoping somebody will do soon. I'm hoping somebody will do side by side polling. I'm hoping they will ask Floridians if they only could pick between Meek and Crist who they would pick. Or if they could only pick between Meek and Rubio. They can poll Crist and Rubio as well. And break the polling down by party affiliation.
What would be the reasoning?
Because if Democrats and left leaning independents see that if they shifted their support to Meek he would win I really believe most of them would. But right now the narrative is and has been that he has no chance because all of the polling is focused on the three way race and very few break down the numbers by party affiliation.
What Democrats in Florida need most right now is a sign that Meek is a viable candidate and he is. But there's no way to prove that without the numbers to back it up.
For all liberals and progressives out there who actually can read and saw that Robert Gibbs made a distinction between who he was talking about on the left and who he wasn't. And for all liberals and progressives who aren't friends with the cretins in the professional left that Robert Gibbs WAS talking about or at least may be friends with them but still aren't afraid to tell the truth. Here is a nice resource detailing all of President Obama's accomplishments since taking office last year.
It can be a useful took when trying to persuade people to get out and vote this year. When they aren't sure why they should be motivated to participate in the midterms you can present over 100 reasons why. The Republicans are already fielding whack job candidates but we need to have something to stand on too to get people motivated. Just GOP bashing is not going to get things done.
On a side note Olberman and Maddow have of course taken Gibbs' comments personally and the last two days have gone out of their way to be assholes.
I haven't watched Olbermann regularly in over a year but every once in awhile I will watch. I am a regular watcher of Rachel Maddow's show and have been since before the election. But here's my guarantee. If both of them keep up the Obama bashing they won't have to worry about me complaining because they simply won't exist to me anymore. I don't know who they think they will draw from as an audience but right wingers aren't going to watch them if their lives depended on it. And the truth is, as repeated polling shows, most liberals and progressives are not anti Obama.
Now I know its a hallmark of the professional left to display a disproportionate amount of poutrage whenever someone insults them but my advice would be to get over it. Better yet to take it to heart and take a long look in the mirror. But embracing the role of bashing Obama? Yeah, see how much job security you have when your ratings plummet. It is what it is.
President Obama signed the $26 billion dollar state aid bill into law yesterday after the House came back from recess early to pass it in an emergency session. Its estimated the bill will save 300,000 jobs across the country. It should have been bigger, and at some point more aid will have to be doled out, but at least for now those 300,000 people have gotten a reprieve.
Didn't agree with his politics but this is terrible news about former Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska.
The Anchorage Daily News reports that the family of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) is concerned that he may have been on-board a GCI-owned plane that reportedly crashed near Dillingham, Alaska. Stevens was on his way to the GCI-owned Agulowak Lodge near Lake Aleknagik.
The Alaska Air National Guard, the Alaska State Police and NTSB are all reportedly en route to the scene of the crash, and hoped to arrive at the scene nearly four hours ago.
I am pretty sure there will be a LOT of whining over this article where Robert Gibbs has this to say about the "professional left":
During an interview with The Hill in his West Wing office, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs blasted liberal naysayers, whom he said would never regard anything the president did as good enough.
“I hear these people saying he’s like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested,” Gibbs said. “I mean, it’s crazy.”
The press secretary dismissed the “professional left” in terms very similar to those used by their opponents on the ideological right, saying, “They will be satisfied when we have Canadian healthcare and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon. That’s not reality.”
Of those who complain that Obama caved to centrists on issues such as healthcare reform, Gibbs said: “They wouldn’t be satisfied if Dennis Kucinich was president.”
When I read the headline on twitter I was all set to be pissed off at Gibbs. But after reading the article I came to a different conclusion.
He is right.
Now I know a lot of folks who he wasn't necessarily talking about will take offense, after all a hit dog will holler. But there is a specific subset of the left he is talking about here and that's the professional left. Those "lefties" brought on TV or Radio or given opinion writing jobs in NewsPapers and some of the more prominent blogs. And guess what, a lot of them ARE batshit insane.
Here's the deal, I've been as frustrated as anybody about some of the things the Obama administration has done or not done. But anybody who takes a step back and objectively looks at what they have accomplished in less than two years. Hell I'll let Rachel Maddow do the honors.
Imagine the pedestal FoxNews would have a Republican President on if they had accomplished even half that in a full term.
That's not to say liberal or progressives in the media should blindly promote Democrats the way FoxNews does. But by the same token how about not doing the flip side and completely trashing the President at every turn no matter what he does for the country.
Think I'm being hyperbolic?
Allow me to remind you that the firebaggers were actively lobbying to kill the health care reform bill, including teaming up with that asshole Grover Norquist and using right wing language to demagogue.
Cenk Uyger who claims to be King Progressive, has called every bill remotely having anything to do with the financial system including the new financial regulatory reform bill a "bailout". Does Cenk have a background in finance? Hell no. So how does he comes to this conclusion? Because firebaggers and Matt Taibbi told him they were. Does he have any proof? Of course not.
But hey don't let facts get in the way of bashing a Democratic President who just at the very least with the financial regulatory reform bill put us back on the path to sanity with the banking industry.
Then you have jackasses like Ed Shultz who is too much of a damn coward to run for office his damn self, beating his chest night after night about what HE would have done. Well Ed your bitchass should've run for office if you have all the answers. Oh and lets not get on the Gold Line scam you're pimping just like Glenn Beck. And mind you this is the same cretin who gives that race baiting bastard Tom Tancredo a platform to spew his venom on a regular basis.
But for somebody to claim to be tough like Ed does every minute of every day, he sure does seem to be sensitive. His wittle feewings are hurt so he's telling Democrats not to vote in the midterms.
Look around asshole. Is the Republican party you see running for office this year the kind you would want running the country.
From the bottom of my heart man
FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
And lets talk Rachel Maddow, of the aforementioned clip. The same Rachel who pointed out all the things President Obama has done. Good, progressive things. Is the same Rachel Maddow who hits him nightly for doing what he said he would do in Afghanistan.
President Obama was never an "anti war" candidate. As he said several years back paraphrased he's "not against all wars, just against dumb wars". And from day one he said he was going to finish the mission in Afghanistan, the place 9-11 was planned. And you want to know the truth? I APPLAUDED him for that shit because whether we like it or not we fucked up that country and made it even more likely that terrorists would use it as a base of operations.
Its funny because some on the left have this joke about the GOP and tax cuts that goes something like this.
Tax Cuts + ? = Prosperity
Well on Afghanistan some on the professional left have the same kind of equation.
Pull Out + ? = World Peace
If only it worked that way. But it doesn't. And even in the midst of supplying more troops to the region President Obama announced the start of withdrawal.
Did the professional left give a shit?
HELL NO
They just bashed him for doing....what he said he would do.
Matter of fact we will end combat operations in Iraq at the end of this month and like i pointed out the other day the professional left don't want to even give him any credit for that.
Mind you back when it was announced I remember all the conspiracy theories about how General Odierno and General Petraeus were ACTUALLY the ones running US foreign policy and that they would never leave Iraq according some on the professional left.
Heard any of them admit they were wrong?
HELL NO
You can say what you want about the wingnuts, when they are in power they support their party even if they fight against some of their party's legislation.
Professional leftist are loathe to even say they are Democrats though and they heap lump after lump of shit on the party and then act like when the GOP wins they had nothing to do with it. Punk asses always criticizing, NEVER taking any responsibility.
Oh and here's the kicker, Gibbs actually did draw a distinction on who he was talking about.
In just over 18 months in office, Obama has passed healthcare reform, financial regulatory reform and fair-pay legislation for women, among other bills near and dear to liberals.
Obama is also overseeing the end of the Iraq war, with the U.S. on schedule to end its combat operations by the end of this month.
He’s also added diversity to the Supreme Court by nominating two female justices, including the court’s first Hispanic. Yet some liberal groups have criticized his nominees for not being liberal enough.
“There’s 101 things we’ve done,” said Gibbs, who then mentioned both Iraq and healthcare.
Gibbs said the professional left is not representative of the progressives who organized, campaigned, raised money and ultimately voted for Obama.
Progressives, Gibbs said, are the liberals outside of Washington “in America,” and they are grateful for what Obama has accomplished in a shattered economy with uniform Republican opposition and a short amount of time.
Again, he's right.
Of course the rub is that some of the progressives and liberals who he isn't talking about will feign offense to cover for the progressives and liberals they know he's not talking about.
Because some folks are dear friends of Jane Hamsher and Cenk, and Ed, etc etc etc. And although they know these folks are on some bullshit right now, they will NEVER call them out publicly. Its funny because I thought the argument for hitting President Obama publicly and loudly was that the left didn't want to be like the right. That they wanted to criticize when its called for instead of exercising epistimic closure.
Funny how that only applies when the subject isn't a friend of theirs.
However as that great poet Jay Z so eloquently put it "Men lie, Women lie, Numbers don't"
Meanwhile, it's worth noting that this is largely a Beltway phenomenon: According to Gallup, Obama is at 81 percent among self-described Democratsand 76 percent among self-described liberals
.
So have at it hoss. I can't wait to see the poutrage over this one.
I'm just hoping that a few of the people this was aimed at as well as a few of those who it wasn't will actually speak the truth on it and start taking a long look in the mirror.
PS: Say this for the right wingers, whether its astro turfed or not they banded together to get enough attention to confuse the American people on a variety of topics. And because plenty of politicians on both sides of the aisle are poll watchers, the Tea Baggers helped to shape policy, legislation and voting records.
So what has the professional left done in response?
Not much.
You want to know who has been a failure?
THE PROFESSIONAL LEFT HAS!
They made their whole mission in life getting the public option in health care reform. And hell I supported it too. But did you see them getting a bunch of lefties to show up and heckle GOP legislators? Did you see them get enough people to shout down Tea Baggers at townhalls last summer? Did you see them do anything to actually influence the GOP rather than just trying to influence Democrats already sympathetic to them?
Of course not.
They are big time shit talkers, but when it comes to actually getting out and DOING something, most of them are just bags of hot air.
So when they lament what isn't in all these bills they seem to hate (which will help a lot of people) I hope one day they acknowledge that they had a hand in that.
At least Peter King is up front about his party's pandering and culture war mongering.
King, the Long Island congressman, said that in terms of social issues, the raging controversy over the Arizona border laws is providing more than enough ammunition for Republicans in key districts.
“The Arizona immigration law is there, there’s no reason to be raising an issue of gay rights” as a wedge, he said.
The funny thing is the media will still treat him and his party as if they are making serious and reasoned arguments. And by funny I mean totally fucked up. SMDH
This is the kind of shit Republicans want to enshrine into law here in Florida.
Marks said his client left her husband with their child, put a towel over her shoulders and walked out of the city-owned park. She was planning on going home to get a bathing suit when she was approached in the parking lot by a police officer.
"[The] police officer confronted her and started essentially quizzing her and demanding information from her, stating that she needed to put Mrs. Lovett's name in a database," Marks said.
Lovett, a Peruvian native who was granted American citizenship in January, speaks English, albeit "not perfectly," Marks said. She said she explained the situation to the officer and requested to speak with her husband. The officer allegedly denied that request and asked Lovett to produce her identification. She had none with her and told the officer it was in her car.
"I started shaking. I [felt] nervous. My son was inside [the] park with [my] husband. I was alone," Lovett said in an interview with ABC-affiliate WFTV. "[I was] very scared. I [had] never been arrested before."
A police report obtained by WFTV indicates Lovett did not give her name fast enough. As a result, she was taken into custody on suspicion of obstructing justice and resisting arrest.
"[The officer] took my client's arms and twisted them behind her back after handcuffing her," Marks said. "That caused some bruises to her arms and her hands. [She was] then escorted into the back of a patrol car and taken to jail."
Lovett sat in jail for about five hours before her husband could arrange to pay her $1,500 bond. The state attorney later dropped the charges without explanation.
"Legally, under the constitution of the state of Florida and the U.S., it is our position that Mrs. Lovett did not have to provide any identification information, but she never refused to do so," Marks said. "Obviously, [police] have a right to investigate crimes if there is a reason to believe somebody committed a crime, but there was no crime here."
Marks said he is also concerned about the city's alleged refusal to disclose information on the database into which the officer allegedly said she wanted to put his client's name.
I am fucking disgusted. The City of Tavares had better have to answer about that database question also. What the fuck is wrong with people?!
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi commandos showed off skills they learned from U.S. military forces, who Saturday formally handed over control of combat operations to Iraqi security forces.
The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. Raymond Odierno, was on hand to watch the final American combat team, the 4th Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division, tender responsibilities to the 6th Iraqi Army Division.
President Barack Obama has ordered the current 64,000-strong U.S. presence to be down to 50,000 by September 1.
Six U.S. brigades will remain to provide support to Iraqi soldiers and police.
I know some folks, including some assholes on the left, don't want to give President Obama any credit for this milestone. But let me tell you what I remember. I remember in 2008 then Senator Barack Obama coming out for a withdrawal timeline for Iraq. I remember President Bush and then Senator John McCain blasting him for it and saying he wanted to "cut and run". Then suddenly when the argument was getting very heated the Iraqis themselves, after Obama visited Iraq, called for our troops to withdraw and had it written into our new SOFA with them. And even then President Bush resisted and McCain opposed it. But once the Iraqis demanded it they were pushed into a corner. But lets not forget what started the dominoes falling. And the Iraqi people had confidence that if Obama won the Presidency he would in fact withdraw our troops according to the deadlines.
I'll also point out that some of the same assholes now trying to minimize this with respect to President Obama, predicted over and over that he would back off the withdrawal date and try to keep a great amount of troops in Iraq indefinitely.
Well screw you guys, Obama got it done. And there is nothing you can do or say to change that history.
For some reason Democrats in Florida keep deluding themselves into thinking that Charlie Crist is going to become some kind of Dem or Dem light should they back him over the REAL Democrat in the race, Representative Kendrick Meek. Well I realize that Crist himself has had to be vague as possible on the issue so that he can fool some Democrats into voting for him but today he was interviewed by Chris Matthews and for a brief moment he showed where his heart really is.
Matthews interrupted: "In other words, would you imagine voting as a Republican, becoming a member of the Republican caucus, if they continue with their strategy of just say no?"
"It would have to do better. There's no question about it," said Crist. "I mean, obviously if you're looking at reducing taxes, reducing the deficit, maybe they've got some good ideas about that. It really depends on issue by issue, Chris."
Really Charlie? I would have loved for Tweety to have followed up by asking him to name one, just one, idea Republicans have right now to reduce taxes or reduce the deficit that isn't a bunch of smoke and mirrors.
And one thing that every Democratic voter in the state of Florida should know is that should Crist get elected as an "independent" he still has to choose one of the two major parties to caucus with. He is going to try to make it seem as if he can just vote with either side whenever he wants to and I guess in theory that's true. But he has to chose a side. Especially if he wants to chair any committees or subcommittees which is huge when you're talking about representing our state. So when he refuses to say he will caucus with either party what he is really saying is he won't tell all of you that he is going to caucus with the Republicans because he doesn't want to lose your vote.
But you will know the candidate by his rhetoric. And when all Crist has is "lower taxes, reduce the deficit", who does that sound like?
Ezra Klein lays out the case against Larry Summers and why he shouldn't be heading President Obama's economic team. Its really compelling stuff.
The critique of Summers is very consistent, and it's really not about him or his vaunted arrogance. It's his position. Summers runs the National Economic Council, which is the body charged with coordinating the president's economic process. But Summers, for all his brilliance and charm, is not the guy you want running meetings and smoothing disagreements and making people feel included. Summers doesn't facilitate debates. He wins them. He wants to be the guy Obama listens to, not the guy who listens to everyone else, and to a large degree, he is.
Over time, this has led to problems in the White House's economic process: People get left out, the lines of authority aren't always clear, and the guy who's supposed to be worrying about all that stuff is instead trying to get the president over to his side of the argument. This has made the White House economic process an unpleasant place to be, particularly if you're not one of the few who have a truly direct connection to the president.
One things for damn sure, with the economy still teetering back and forth and the bad jobs numbers that came out today, President Obama should be hearing from EVERYBODY on his team. Not just the people Summers thinks he should hear from.
I don't know why some in the media keep falling for Paul Ryan's schtick, but it only gives Paul Krugman more opportunities to tear him a new one.
And we already know, from experience with the Medicare Advantage program, that a voucher system would have higher, not lower, costs than our current system. The only way the Ryan plan could save money would be by making those vouchers too small to pay for adequate coverage. Wealthy older Americans would be able to supplement their vouchers, and get the care they need; everyone else would be out in the cold.
In practice, that probably wouldn’t happen: older Americans would be outraged — and they vote. But this means that the supposed budget savings from the Ryan plan are a sham.
So why have so many in Washington, especially in the news media, been taken in by this flimflam? It’s not just inability to do the math, although that’s part of it. There’s also the unwillingness of self-styled centrists to face up to the realities of the modern Republican Party; they want to pretend, in the teeth of overwhelming evidence, that there are still people in the G.O.P. making sense. And last but not least, there’s deference to power — the G.O.P. is a resurgent political force, so one mustn’t point out that its intellectual heroes have no clothes.
But they don’t. The Ryan plan is a fraud that makes no useful contribution to the debate over America’s fiscal future
Memphis, TN (WMC-TV) - Congressman Steve Cohen has a huge lead over former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton in the race for Tennessee's 9th district congressional seat, according to a new poll by Yacoubian Research, co-sponsored by Action News 5.
In the poll 65% of likely voters said they will vote for Cohen, only 15% said they would vote for Herenton, and 20% said they were undecided.
The poll (click here to download and read) comes less than three weeks away from the August primary.
"Steven Cohen is easily going to win that race," Berje Yacoubian, head of Yacoubian Research said. "It is not even a contest."
Yacoubian says Cohen's large lead over Herenton is astonishing.
"I am surprised Herenton has been so ineffective at mobilizing the African American vote," he said.
Mayor Herenten is a guy I used to look up to. I was a kid but I distinctly remember the night he was elected. We were all so elated to have elected our first black mayor and for quite a while he made us all proud.
But later in his career it was apparent that it became more about him than about the people of Memphis. And this race against Cohen pretty much was the culmination of his long road down. Still I would have at least considered supporting the guy had he actually run a real campaign. He does have plenty of accomplishments he could have pointed to and the guy does have a PHD. But instead he focused almost solely on one thing, his skin color.
If we are going to say its unacceptable for white people to do it then its for damn sure out of bounds for us to do it as well. And the moment he decided to go that route I have been totally against his candidacy. I was worried for awhile though that playing on race might influence the voters in Memphis but my hometown has shown so far that they aren't buying his BS either. And I hope in the end the final vote tally is as embarrassing for Herenton as his campaign has been for all Memphians.
"If he plans on running his country like his yacht, we're all going to be sinking," said John Walenczyk, a Summerwind deckhand.
• • •
The buzz among Greene employees is that if the Asian or European markets have done poorly overnight, it's going to be a rough morning because Greene, a screamer, is up all hours monitoring his vast portfolio.
James Battles, Greene's former personal chef, sued him last year. The suit alleges Greene demanded round-the-clock attention and would berate and humiliate Battles when he sought reimbursement for food paid for out of his own pocket.
Battles said Greene fired him after he was hospitalized for exhaustion before one of Greene's parties. The settlement is confidential and Greene declined to discuss the case.
Former and current employees tell similar stories, though most fear talking publicly.
Adam Lambert worked as captain of Greene's 145-foot yacht, Summerwind, earlier this year.
"He has total disregard for anybody else,'' chuckled Lambert, who said he was Greene's 20th and 22nd Summerwind captain (No. 21 quit after a few hours with Greene).
"I don't think I ever once had an actual conversation with him. It was always, 'I should just get rid of you, what f------ good are you? You're just a f------ boat driver. You're the third-highest paid employee in my corporation and I should just get rid of you,' '' Lambert, 43, recalled by phone from a yacht in Croatia. "It didn't bother me. I just felt sorry for the man. He doesn't seem very happy."
Harlan Hoffman, 37, was in a Fort Lauderdale yachting apparel store in 2007 when he saw a help wanted ad for Summerwind.
"There were two people from Australia there who said, 'Oh, good luck with that one. . . . We're still waiting to get paid by Summerwind.' I should have listened," Hoffman said.
The deckhand was shocked while buffing Greene's yacht and wound up hospitalized.
A boat's owner is supposed to take care of on-the-job medical costs, but Hoffman said Greene — whom he never met — told the insurance company he had never heard of Hoffman and that he didn't work on Summerwind. It took eight months and legal action that included affidavits from other crew members vouching for Hoffman and trashing Greene to get his bills paid.
"This guy Jeff Greene threw tons of money into new diving gear, but the crew's basic equipment — food and supplies — he didn't want to spend any money on. Summerwind has a terrible reputation,'' Hoffman said. "Mr. Greene's yacht is known to be a party yacht. When it went to Cuba, everybody talked about the vomit caked all over the sides from all the partying going on."
Hoffman couldn't believe it a few weeks back he saw Greene's campaign ads on TV.
"He has this act on TV talking about what a good guy he is, and he's anything but. He treats his own employees like s---,'' he said. "If he can't even treat his employees good, I don't see how he's going to do good for the American people."
John Walenczyk, the Summerwind deckhand, was aboard that notorious trip to Cuba.
"He didn't want to put a dollar into anything, but expected miracles from the crew. He doesn't care about anybody but himself — a real peach,'' said Walenczyk.
Hell I think Greene missed his calling. He should have just run against Marco Rubio in the GOP primary because I think there's a good chance he would have won there. You know how much they love their rich assholes who treat the people beneath them like shit in the other party.
But there's no room for him with the Dems here in Florida. And all the money in the world won't change that.
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