Is Mark Penn Her Political Advisor?

Blanche Lincoln seems to be doing all she can to insure that she doesn't make it out of a Democratic Primary. You have to be some kinda clueless to pull a stunt so repulsive that a columnist not fond of your opponent not only defends him from your attack, but ALSO gets to calling you a Republican in the process.

Can Kendrick Meek Win? - Shorter Version

Hell yes he can if we support him financially!

Kendick Meek Is On The Ballot!!!

Miami Gardens, Fla. - A historic and yearlong grassroots mobilizing effort wrapped up on Monday as Kendrick Meek's U.S. Senate campaign submitted over 140,000 petitions to Supervisor of Elections offices throughout Florida to place Meek's name on the ballot.

Florida law allows candidates for office to qualify for the ballot in one of two ways. Candidates can pay a roughly $10,000 filing fee, or collect 112,476 valid petitions from registered Florida voters, regardless of party affiliation or non-affiliation. Kendrick Meek will be the first statewide candidate to qualify for the ballot by petition.

"Whenever anyone signs their name on a dotted line, it means something. Florida voters from every one of our 67 counties have signed this petition to put my name on the ballot. Traveling to every corner of Florida has taken me into people's homes and introduced me to their lives. People are concerned with the direction of our state, and they want leaders to focus on bringing new, long-term jobs home to Florida. Status quo politicians helped create this economic mess, and Floridians want leaders to transform our economy from recession to recovery," said Kendrick Meek, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate. "Our campaign is about putting people ahead of the powerful, and we stand today on a mountain of petitions from Floridians who are saying yes to progress and no to the status quo."

Since April 2009, field staff, organizers and volunteers have worked to collect petitions from Florida voters. Kendrick Meek for U.S. Senate field offices are open in Jacksonville, Miami Gardens, Orlando, Tallahassee, and Tampa.

Kendrick signed his petition Monday morning and submitted petitions to the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections Office. He then traveled to Jacksonville to thank supporters for their work.

In Tallahassee, Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Karen Thurman and State Representative Alan Williams submitted petitions to the Leon County Supervisor of Elections Office. In Tampa, former Mayor Sandra Freedman, State Representative Janet Cruz and members of the city commission submitted petitions to the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office. In Orlando, Sheriff Jerry Demings and members of the city commission submitted petitions to the Orange County Supervisor of Elections Office.

Oh. My. Damn.

Trust me, you're gonna want to watch this video all the way to the very end. Maybe a few times at that lol

Repeal And Replace.....With What? An Opportunity

I posted before about how the GOP's repeal push is likely to blow up in their face by the time November rolls around. In the last week or so it seems a number of Republicans have started reading the same tea leaves I was looking at and backed off the repeal claim some. But now there seems to be this new approach of saying they will "Repeal and Replace" the health care reform bill. So here's my thing, I never felt like Democrats ever took full advantage of Paul Ryan's disastrous and truly scary "shadow budget" nor his bullshit heath care reform plan which was actually scored by the CBO. Well my friends, as the saying goes pay back is a bitch and Democrats should now take that plan and damn near SUPER GLUE IT to the Republican Party. And you know what, I bet if we looked hard enough we could find some death panels in his plan, some real and actual cuts to Medicare, hell maybe even some areas where that plan puts government between a patient and their doctors.

For the folks in the short bus what I'm saying is now that Republicans are saying they will replace the health care reform bill that already passed we should now fear monger against Ryan's plan to the point where people will fear IT a lot more than they fear what has already passed. And in the process we insure that health care reform really is the Republican's "waterloo".

Their only possible strategic response would be to totally disavow Ryan's plan which they tried to do during the health care reform summit at Blair House, but then that leaves them in the uncomfortable position of either having to come up with another plan OR having no answer when their Democratic opponent asks them what they plan on "replacing" health care reform with.

Again, this is the lowest hanging fruit ever. I can only hope Democrats don't find a way to fuck it up.

Ho Sit Down

It would behoove someone close to Michele Bachmann to tell her that the next time she wants to try to imply that someone it a liar, it had better not be a Civil Rights Icon like John Lewis who is more of a patriot than she could ever hope to be or a minister like Emmanual Cleaver, a minister, who is more of a Christian than could ever dream of being.

Dumbass

Yeah, I said it!

When The Abnormal Becomes Normal

I have seen a reference to this on several blogs but I want you to read it first and then check out my question below.

Mr. Frum now makes his living as the media's go-to basher of fellow Republicans, which is a stock Beltway role. But he's peddling bad revisionist history that would have been even worse politics. The truth is that Democrats never had any intention of working with Republicans, except to pick off two or three Senators and calling it "bipartisanship." This worked for Democrats on the stimulus, and they had hoped to do it again on health care.

In the House, Republicans were frozen out from the start. Three Chairmen—Charlie Rangel, Henry Waxman and George Miller—holed up last spring to write the most liberal bill they could get through the House. Republicans were told that unless they embraced the "public option," there was nothing to discuss.

As for the White House, House GOP leaders John Boehner and Eric Cantor in May sent a letter to President Obama "respectfully" requesting a meeting to discuss ideas. The White House didn't respond. Mr. Obama's first deadline for House passage was July, and only after public opinion turned against the bill did he begin to engage Republican ideas. Yet in his September address to Congress attempting to revive his bill, he made no concession save pilot projects for tort reform.

In the Senate, a group of Republicans did negotiate with Finance Chairman Max Baucus for months, even as Senators Chris Dodd and Ted Kennedy were crafting a bill that mirrored the liberal House product. GOP Senators Chuck Grassley, Olympia Snowe and Orrin Hatch are hardly strangers to working with Democrats. In 2007, they helped Mr. Baucus expand the children's insurance program over President Bush's opposition.

Senate liberals kept tugging Mr. Baucus to the left, however, and eventually the White House ordered him to call off negotiations. Senator Snowe still voted for the Finance Committee bill, though even she fell away on the floor as Majority Leader Harry Reid insisted on pushing the public option and tried, as Ms. Snowe put it, to "ram it" and "jam it" through the Senate.

In the end, Republicans couldn't as a matter of principle support even 50% of a bill that was such a huge and reckless expansion of government. If they had, they would have rightly lost the support of their own most loyal supporters. In the end, too, the bill was so unpopular—59% opposed in a Sunday CNN survey—that 34 House Democrats voted no and Mr. Reid is resorting to reconciliation to get the "fixes" of more taxes and spending through the Senate.

Without knowing the source where would you say that excerpt came from?

a) A conservative bog

b) FoxNews' website

c) A conservative columnist

d) The editorial board of a major newspaper


If you answered anything but D you would be mistaken.

This is actually taken from The Wall Street Journal and not from a columnist there but from the paper's editors. Thing of it is most of the places I have seen that linked to this column did so without noting at all the partisan ideologically slanted rhetoric throughout the piece. Maybe I'm naive but has there ever been a time when a paper like the Wall Street Journal published something this far to either side of the political spectrum from their editorial page? I can't believe that there has. And if that's the case why is nobody making an issue out of it?

It is scary to think that a major news outlet can be used for the purpose of smearing a political commentator on partisan grounds. And you know if they can do it to one of their own like David Frum, they will have no qualms doing it to a progressive or liberal.

Are we really going to let Rupert Murdock totally destroy even the standards for our print media?

If so we deserve whatever comes next...

Eric Cantor's Magic Bullet

Up and to the left. Up and to the left...

Unfortunately the mainstream media will still probably use this as a basis for false equivalency.

"Go For It"

President Obama selling health care reform in Iowa.

Congressman Clyburn Ain't Scared Of You Muthafukas!

Over the weekend when the Tea Baggers were hurling racial epithets and spitting on members of Congress, Jim Clyburn came out and said that basically he is not easily intimidated at all. I love his spirit of defiance in the face of all this dangerous and inflammatory rhetoric but I hope that he never has to prove his courage again like he had to back in the 60s.

Danger!

The right wing terrorists are getting riled up and Republicans are steady egging them on...

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

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

Danger!

This Looks Like A Headline From "The Onion"

Still Bitter Over Loss On Health Reform, GOP Seeks To Block Judicial Nominee For His Health Care Views

Sadly its the reality of our political system, or should I say its the reality of the Republican Party, today.

This Is Why I Heart Claire McCaskill

She can be too conservative at times on some issues but she doesn't mind mixing it up with the Republicans and calling them out. I'll say one more thing too, this clip should be made into an attack ad immediately if not sooner with the heading that Republicans are putting the country at risk with their temper tantrum. Hell I would have damn near the whole caucus go down and do a floor speech blasting the Republicans for a "pre 9-11 mentality" and putting our men and women in uniform in harms way just to score political points and play games.

Just sayin

Rachel On The Extremist Fringe Of The GOP

These people are gearing up for a war and the mainstream media is still sticking their head in the sand as if they are going away. Thankfully we at least have Rachel Maddow calling them out.

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

Mental Midgets Acting Like A Bunch Of 3 Year Olds

So the Republican Senators have decided to scream, pout, and take their ball and go home because heath care reform passed.

I can't understand why anybody would admire let alone vote for such immature assholes.

Making History

Yes We Can!!!




And yes, this is, A BIG FUCKING DEAL!!!

Punch Them In The Mouth With Their Polling Argument

The Republicans made up some of the most vicious and vile lies about health care reform over the course of the last year and because the media was unwilling to call them out for these lies, several of them actually took hold with a segment of the population. Even when they were disproven over and over again, shameless Republicans continued to repeat them over and over again and the resulting confusion worked out in their favor...for awhile. The polling numbers for President Obama and the health care reform plans definitely went underwater for a time, even if the poll numbers for the underlying policies remained relatively strong. But Republicans made what could quite possibly be a cataclysmic error when they started using the polling as an argument to vote against health care reform. It was without a doubt an act of desperation as they saw the writing on the wall that health care reform would pass, but even in desperation you would think SOMEBODY would have pointed out how this might come back to bite them in the ass.

Thank God, nobody evidently did.

There was always both a potential short term and a potential long term problem for Republicans with using the polling argument. The short term problem of course would have been if all of the polling turned around before the health care votes were taken. It would be really hard to on the one hand say that Democrats are going to vote against the wishes of the American people when polling is bad, then turn around and vote against the polling numbers when they turn around for health care reform. The hypocrisy would have been so over the top that I think had that happened a few Republicans would have pealed off and voted for the bill in shame. But even though polling did turn around in several polls on health care reform, by and large it was still a mixed bag so the Republicans effectively got away with it in the short term.

But the long term problem was always going to be the harder one to over come anyway. See its easy to fearmonger against something when its still just a concept, but its a lot harder to fearmonger effectively against it when it becomes a reality. The only way the Republicans strategy would work would be if they could somehow keep the polling numbers for health care reform mixed. This as seniors are getting rebates of $250 to help them with their prescription drugs. This as people's kids aren't being discriminated against for preexisting conditions. This as parents are allowed to keep their kids on their insurance until age 26.

Not exactly the easiset task.

But not only would they have to hope that people would continue to be either confused about or against health care reform, they would actually need for people to be SOOOOO against it that they would support a full repeal of it. Let me repeat that, a FULL repeal of health care reform, something that Presidents, Democrat and Republican alike, have been trying to get passed for over half a century.

So now, on the day that health care reform is signed into law, here comes the first of many devastating blows to come in my opinion for the Republican Party.

WASHINGTON — Americans by 9 percentage points have a favorable view of the health care overhaul that President Obama signed into law Tuesday, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, a notable turnaround from surveys before the vote that showed a plurality against it.
By 49%-40% those surveyed say it was "a good thing" rather than a bad one that Congress passed the bill. Half describe their reaction in positive terms, as "enthusiastic" or "pleased," while about four in 10 describe it in negative ways, as "disappointed" or "angry."

The largest single group, 48%, calls the bill "a good first step" that should be followed by more action on health care. An additional 4% also have a favorable view, saying the bill makes the most important changes needed in the nation's health care system.

Understand this, these numbers are coming out before even a single provision of the health care bill has actually taken effect. Nobody has even begun to feel the positive aspects of it and yet the numbers are 49% for and 40% against. If you don't think those numbers will improve after the bill actually starts taking effect in people's day to day lives you're delusional....or maybe just a hardcore Republican.

But wait it gets worse as Greg Sargent tracked down the internals.

* Independents say passage was a good thing, though by a statistically insignificant margin: 46-45.

* The emotional response of respondendents was more positive than negative, with 50% saying they’re enthusiastic or pleased while 42% are angry or disappointed. But: Indys break down along these lines 45-47.

* Republicans are very unhappy about what happened: A whopping 79% are angry or disappointed.

* Gallup concludes that passage was a “clear political victory,” but adds that much will turn on which way independents swing in coming weeks.

So even independents, who were pretty down on the bill in most polls, are now at least even in those for and those against. And many of them are evidently not just ok with the bill but enthusiastic or pleased. You KNOW the Republicans are going to rush out some Rasmussen poll to combat these numbers publicly but privately they have to be wetting their pants.


Either way the attack ads will damn near write themselves.

Imagine about 20 seconds of clips of Republicans referring to polling over the last few months and how Democrats were voting against their constituents.

Then a still shot of this poll.

Then a voice over guy saying “Well surely Republicans will support reform now, right?”

Then show images of tea baggers and Republicans cow towing to them. Steele calling reform armageddon. Several Repugs talking about repeal. Attorney Generals calling it unconstitutional. Basically a bunch of angry rhetoric.

Then cut to a kid who now has coverage even though they have a preexisting condition, cut to an elderly person at the pharmacy picking up their meds, cut to a small business owner handing out insurance card to their employees.

“For Republicans is it really about you? Or is it really about them?” fade to black with audio of wingnuts screaming "Kill the bill" in the background.

That's my 2 minute thought process ad. Imagine what I could do with this wealth of material if I actually sat down and thought about it.

I'll say this much, I hope Florida US Senate candidate Kendrick Meek's people ask both Marco Rubio and Charlie Crist early and often if they support repeal and or the efforts by the Florida AG to call health care reform unconstitutional. I don't know if Crist will make it out off the primary but if he does we all know he will flip flop with the polling numbers. But if Rubio makes it out he is such an idiot that he will not only continue to call for repeal but scare most Floridians in the process.

Either way, we win. So whose coming with me?

This Rubio Story Just Keeps Getting Better...

Now Marco Rubio's former chief of staff is ALSO found to have been living lavish off of a GOP credit card.


The attack ads should literally write themselves lol

Allow Me To Translate

John McCain:

Since the health care reform bill passed despite all of our fear mongering and lying we are now going to continue obstructing everything but now we are going to admit to it and blame it on health care reform.

Harry Reid:

John McCain is actin like a lil BITCH right now!

A Complete And Total Lack Of Self Awareness

From John "Oompa Loompa" Boehner's twitter:

So this is how Soviet America begins. The Dems are the REDS -- the real Americans are the WHITES.

I don't know if this was just bad wording or a dog whistle but you would think after the racist epithets thrown around by the Tea Baggers, Boehner would have more sense than this.

He Don't Really Want It With Jane

Watch in wonder and awe as Jane Mayer systematically dismantle's Marc Theissen's pro torture arguments and serves his balls on a platter.

FLAWLESS VICTORY!!!

Fuck It, Im Feeling Charitable (And High)

Any Dem strategists that might happen to read this:

Want to know your best, most underused, political winner is on health care reform?

The Donut Hole.

You tell the story of who opened it (Republicans) and who closed it (Democrats) and support for this bill will go through the roof, no bullshit. Don't even use much else in the bill to promote it. Almost every older person in this country has either been affected by or knows someone whose been affected by the donut hole. If they find out you fixed it and it goes into effect this year they will flock to you and your candidate.

You're welcome.

The Biggest Loser

You know who the biggest loser is tonight?

Blanche Lincoln

Remember, she still has to decide whether to vote for or against the health care bill reconcilliation fix. And if her primary opponent, Bill Halter, has advisors worth a damn either decision will come back to haunt her either as a politically hungry flip flopper or a corporatist Democrat out of touch with her constituents.

Just sayin

YES WE CAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Enough said

The Magnificent

I have seen most of President Obama's speeches if not live then on youtube, but I have to say that his speech today to the House Democratic caucus was the best I have ever seen from him. That's not hyperbole, its a fact and he made all the arguments that I would have made if given the chance to speak to the caucus. For me, that's huge because it means he was truly speaking for all of us today. No matter where you are on the political spectrum, no matter how many of Pres Obama's speeches you have seen before, no matter what you think about health care reform, please do yourself a favor and watch this video. You'll be glad you did.

I Wish A Muthafucka Would

So Tea Baggers decided to go all David Duke today and call Civil Rights Icon Congressman John Lewis a nigger, spit on Congressman Cleaver and try to intimidated Congressman Clyburn. Setting aside the fact that we all knew these coward ass bitches were racists from the start, well at least most black folks did, the would have been much better off at trying to keep that shit under wraps. Now that they have let the veil slipped and shown the world who they are, nobody will give as much of a fuck when Tea Baggers start getting fucked up. And make no mistake about it, if you stupid muthafucking Tea Baggers want to run around calling us niggers, then sooner or later you are going to have to answer for that. So just know and understand, as Scarface so eloquently put it, if you want to go to war, we'll take you to war.

Real talk.

Update: Visual evidence.

Enough Is Enough

This is simple for me. If House Democrats allow Stupak or his group to add anything to this bill to restrict women's reproductive rights then I withdraw any support of the bill at all and it should not pass. I am just one guy in the whole blogosphere but I bet there are lots of liberals and progressives who share that sentiment. You simply cannot sacrifice one core Democratic issue for another. If Democrats can't find a way to pass the bill without that tradeoff then they don't deserve to govern, period.

Since evidently the White House and some in Congressiona Leadership has decided that "the left" does more bad than good for them then maybe its time for "the left" to let them sink or swim on their own if this happens.

They Really Are Cowards

You know, one of the most irritating things about being a Democrat is how few of our elected officials are ever willing to actually fight for something. They are so scared of Republican threats that many of them run for the hills at the first sign of trouble. And the truth is on the few occasion when a Democrat actually stands up to them invariably its the Republican who turn tails and run like the cowards they are.

Witness this situation today on the floor of the House. Republican Rep Jason Chaffetz decides to run with some unsourced unfounded rumors against retiring Democrat Bart Gordon on the floor. But look at how fast he backpeddles when Gordon gets up and confronts him about it.



See Republicans like to talk slick because they know they can usually get away with it with no reprecussions. But when they get even the slightest bit of pushback they scatter like roaches. If only Democrats could understand this they could destroy the Republican Party for a generation. But as long as they continue to only give sporadic pushback to Republican lies, then jack asses like Chaffetz will continue to sneak around and talk shit about them.

I Need Your Help

Charlie Crist's sock puppet Senator Lemeiux has a survey up and he wants some feed back about health care reform. I say we give it to him ;)

I Don't Care Who You Are, This Is Funny!!!

"You're Absolutely Motherfuckin Right"

Jon Stewart IS Glenn Beck

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Conservative Libertarian
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform

Deem And Pass Messaging Fail

So I'm having a conversation on twitter yesterday with a journalist who used the word "controversial" in a tweet describing the Democrats mulling a decision to use "deem and pass" to avoid a vote on the Senate bill in and of itself and instead opting to deem that bill passed and then vote to pass the side car reconciliation fixes and it dawned on me. The Democrats once again failed to see the inevitable attacks when with a little preparation they could have actually preemptively come out strong for "deem and pass" and looked good doing it.

Picture this. Before anybody mentions "deem and pass" on the record Speaker Pelosi addresses the media. Her messaging on the issue is simple, this is all about transparency. Yes she could hold two separate votes on the Senate bill and then the side car fixes but that would potentially allow members of the House to vote two separate ways in an attempt to hide their own intent. We all know as this point that the Senate bill plus the side car fixes is what the final reform product will look like, but in the Senate bill itself there are several problematic issues. One of the main problems with the Senate bill is all of the state specific special deals included in it like the Cornhusker Kickback. Holding two votes gives members the chance to vote for those provisions in the Senate bill then turn around and vote against the reconciliation fixes to take them out.

Democrats could have gone on the offensive and said they did not want to allow anyone to be able to go home to their district and say they voted for health care reform when in fact they voted for the Senate bill but voted against the fixes to make it better and take the special deals out. Using deem and pass ensures that every member of the House votes on the final product and they have to say yea or nay whether they support some of those problems in the Senate bill. That way the American people can have a better, truer way of judging their Representative's vote on the issue.

Instead Democrats came with a message of cowardice saying using "deem and pass" allowed some members avoid making a hard vote for a Senate bill that they didn't support. You can't win a messaging war, especially one on such a contentious issue, coming from a position of weakness like that. When you make it seem like you are using "deem and pass" in order to avoid confrontation then what you are doing is creating the impression that you are doing something sneaky and underhanded. When you assert that you are using "deem and pass" in the name of transparency then you come off looking like the good guy.

Imagine if President Obama had said in that bullshit interview with Bret Baier that he supported the use of "deem and pass" because it reflected what the final health care reform would look like and he was vehemently against those special deals. He would have come off a helluva lot better than he did in struggling to try to stay neutral on the subject and not having a good comeback when Baier asked him if using "deem and pass" was the show of courage that the President himself had called for just a few days earlier.

I honestly don't know who has been coordinating the messaging around this health care reform push but whomever it is should resign in shame. Truly.

About Bart Stupak's Sexism

Am I really the only person who thought that Bart Stupak's statement dismissing the endorsement of the health care reform bill by 59,000 nuns as the epitome of sexist? Lets think about what he is saying here.

"When I'm drafting right to life language, I don't call up the nuns." He says he instead confers with other groups including "leading bishops, Focus on the Family, and The National Right to Life Committee."

Translation?

When I am writing about a woman's reproductive rights I want nothing to do with the opinions of women of the cloth (nuns) and instead restrict my outreach to men of the cloth (bishops) or organizations headed by men (FOF and NRTL).

I wonder if he were righting language about men's reproductive health he would only consult with NOW.

Its worth pointing out that his primary opponent is also a woman. If she has a campaign advisor worth his salt this quote of Stupaks will come back to bit him in the ass in a major way.

One can only hope...

Can't Call It An Ambush

I might be the only blogger on the left not upset in the least about Bret Baier's assholery this evening in his interview with President Obama. My thing is this, its fucking FoxNews, what the fuck exactly did he expect? Its the classic scorpion-toad situation. Bret Baier is no different from Bill O'Reilly or any other right wing asshat on that network so if you are going to go there and allow them to twist you up like a pretzel I say shame on you, not shame on them.

Wonder when President Obama will get around to allowing Rachel Maddow to interview him again.

I won't hold my breath.

Pointing And Laughing

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Soft on terror, eh?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Jane Hamsher And "Union Thuggery"

If you still weren't sure that Jane Hamsher had completely gone over to the dark side, there should be no doubt any more.

No amounts of apologies will suffice for this kind of rhetoric from a so called progressive in my opinion.

I can't wait till she starts advocating for free markets and tax cuts.

Ezra Delivers An Elbow From The Sky

Ezra Klein's takedown of David Brooks entire column is a beauty to behold. I'll just leave you with the last two lines.

Brooks isn't wrong in the sense that "I disagree with him." He's wrong in the sense that the column requires a correction.

Air Cover

MoveOn has now joined the fight to get health care reform passed.



With them on board and dailykos on board, what other major progressive/liberal group is actually against passing the bill other than the firebaggers?

Just askin.

Tea Party Darling Marco Rubio's Lavish Lifestyle

When will Tea Baggers ever learn? LOL

Marco Rubio was barely solvent as a young lawmaker climbing his way to the top post in the Florida House, but special interest donations and political perks allowed him to spend big money with little scrutiny.

About $600,000 in contributions was stowed in two inconspicuous political committees controlled by Rubio, now the Republican front-runner for the U.S. Senate, and his wife. A St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald analysis of the expenses found:

• Rubio failed to disclose $34,000 in expenses — including $7,000 he paid himself — for one of the committees in 2003 and 2004, as required by state law.

• One committee paid relatives nearly $14,000 for what was incorrectly described to the IRS as "courier fees" and listed a nonexistent address for one of them. Another committee paid $5,700 to his wife, who was listed as the treasurer, much of it for "gas and meals."

• He billed more than $51,000 in unidentified "travel expenses'' to three different credit cards — nearly one-quarter of the committee's entire haul. Charges are not required to be itemized, but other lawmakers detailed almost all of their committee expenses.

Rubio's spending continued in 2005 when the Republican Party of Florida handed him a credit card to use at his own discretion. While serving as House speaker in 2007 and 2008, he charged thousands of dollars in restaurant tabs to the state party at the same time taxpayers were subsidizing his meals in Tallahassee.

snip

Rubio's high-roller political spending belies his image as an outsider riding a wave of antiestablishment fervor and gunning to knock off Gov. Charlie Crist for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination. A Times/Herald review of other legislators' committees shows they typically contributed far more to other candidates and reported vastly fewer credit card payments.

"Having expenditures in the tens of thousands of dollars to pay off credit cards, it's clear to me it was being used to live off of. The Rubios were living off it,'' said state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, a strong Crist supporter.

snip

Rubio has already admitted he used the GOP's credit card to double bill the party and state taxpayers in 2007 for flights from South Florida to Tallahassee. He said he would pay the party back about $3,000 for the flights and consult with his accountant about amending his tax return.

During the 2007 and 2008 legislative sessions, records show Speaker Rubio charged more than $3,700 in meals on his party credit card at the same time he was receiving the state's $126 per day "subsistence" to help cover legislators' food and lodging. Harris said the meal charges were for political purposes, though the speaker's successor typically oversees political activities for House Republicans and lawmakers are not allowed to raise money during session.

Rubio received $10,000 for meals and lodging from the state in 2007 and 2008. Still, the credit card records obtained by the Times/Herald showed Rubio regularly dined out at the party's expense — from a $14.24 bill at Andrew's Capital Grill & Bar, to $184.15 at Masa, an upscale "Asian-fusion'' restaurant.

"It would be entirely inappropriate for Marco to use (taxpayer) money to pay for meals that were political in nature,'' Harris said. "As a general rule, the subsistence payments went to subsidize lodging for Marco and any time he spent money for a political meal he made sure that the party paid for it."

For his last year as speaker, Rubio reported a net worth of less than $8,400, despite earning $69,000 from Florida International University, $45,000 from the state and $300,000 from Broad & Cassell. The father of four had more than $900,000 in debts, including two mortgages on properties in Miami and Tallahassee, a home equity loan and a student loan.

To recap, Marco Rubio has used his position as Speaker of the Florida House to pull in big time cash which he has used to finance his own high roller lifestyle. If you think that's something, just imagine what kind of kickbacks he could get working as a US Senator. Yeah, a real man of the people, that guy.

In the race for junior Senator from the State of Florida there is only one true man of the people and that is Congressman Kendrick Meek. He isn't looking to stuff his pockets with this position, he is looking to better the lives of all Floridians. If the Tea Baggers were truly worried about fiscal responsibility HE is the guy whom they would rally around regardless of party.

Or they can keep backing a guy who is going to sell them out for top dollar no sooner than he takes his oath of office.

It is what it is.

More Of This Please!

Only the next time can we put this ad out BEFORE the Republicans put theirs out? Damn I'm tired of playing defense...

Calling Out Journos Who Fail To Call Out FoxNews

Howard Raines calls out his colleagues who keep sticking their heads in the sand about FoxNews and their obvious political agenda.

Why has our profession, through its general silence -- or only spasmodic protest -- helped Fox legitimize a style of journalism that is dishonest in its intellectual process, untrustworthy in its conclusions and biased in its gestalt? The standard answer is economics, as represented by the collapse of print newspapers and of audience share at CBS, NBC and ABC. Some prominent print journalists are now cheering Rupert Murdoch, the head of News Corp. (which owns the Fox network) for his alleged commitment to print, as evidenced by his willingness to lose money on the New York Post and gamble the overall profitability of his company on the survival of the Wall Street Journal. This is like congratulating museums for preserving antique masterpieces while ignoring their predatory methods of collecting.

Why can't American journalists steeped in the traditional values of their profession be loud and candid about the fact that Murdoch does not belong to our team? His importation of the loose rules of British tabloid journalism, including blatant political alliances, started our slide to quasi-news. His British papers famously promoted Margaret Thatcher's political career, with the expectation that she would open the nation's airwaves to Murdoch's cable channels. Ed Koch once told me he could not have been elected mayor of New York without the boosterism of the New York Post.

snip

For the first time since the yellow journalism of a century ago, the United States has a major news organization devoted to the promotion of one political party. And let no one be misled by occasional spurts of criticism of the GOP on Fox. In a bygone era of fact-based commentary typified, left to right, by my late colleagues Scotty Reston and Bill Safire, these deceptions would have been given their proper label: disinformation.

Under the pretense of correcting a Democratic bias in news reporting, Fox has accomplished something that seemed impossible before Ailes imported to the news studio the tricks he learned in Richard Nixon's campaign think tank: He and his video ferrets have intimidated center-right and center-left journalists into suppressing conclusions -- whether on health-care reform or other issues -- they once would have stated as demonstrably proven by their reporting. I try not to believe that this kid-gloves handling amounts to self-censorship, but it's hard to ignore the evidence. News Corp., with 64,000 employees worldwide, receives the tender treatment accorded a future employer.

Melting Faces

Rachel Maddow has been on Bart Stupak's ass like a pitbull on a steak and now that she is asking questions that may well lead to trouble with the IRS if not the ethics committee in Congress, you gotta wonder if Stupak is regretting trying to kill health care reform with his one man jihad on a womans reproductive choices.

Whether he has regret or not it doesn't appear that Rachel will be letting up one bit on him any time soon.

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Why Jon Stewart Isn't Enough

I love Jon Stewart and I watch him just about every night, but I think sometimes we expect too much of him and not enough of our actual REAL news programming. Take for instance his interview with Marc Thiessen last night in my opinion was an EPIC FAIL in my opinion. Yes he made some decent points at times but for the overwhelming majority of the interview he was so uninformed on the subject that he couldn't refute any of the MANY MANY MANY lies coming out of Thiessen's mouth. I mean on basic points like with the information we got from Khalid Sheik Muhammed was total bullshit and most people following this issue know it. Yet Stewart just let him go on and on and on lying through his fucking teeth. And this bullshit is coming from a guy who was a frikkin SPEECHWRITER!!!

Maybe the most infuriating part of the interview was where Thiessen took shots at Ali Soufan. Not only did he accuse Soufan of torturing a detainee, which admittedly took a special kind of chutzpah, but he also labeled Soufan a "hero of the left".

No muthafucka, Soufan is a hero of this entire country. While Thiessen was sitting on his fat pasty ass in the White House in a nice climate controlled room writing speeches for Bush to butcher, Soufan was overseas putting his ass on the line, risking his life, and interrogating some of the most dangerous terrorists in the world all in the name of trying to keep ALL of us safe here at home. So on behalf of him, FUCK YOU and all the shit stains like you.

But again this isn't necessarily Jon Stewart's fault. He is after all a comedian and actor by trade, not a journalist. What we actually need is Wolf Blitzer to be asking hard questions of Thiessen and challenging him on all his points. Instead Thiessen is likely to get SOFTER questions should he happen to go on CNN. Oh and of course he has his own column in one of our nations biggest newspapers to spew this kind of blatantly false bullshit whenever he feels like it.

Such is the state of the media in our country, God help us all.

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About That "Shadow Budget"

LMAOOOOOOOO

So it turns out that even if Paul Ryan could get ever conservative's wet dream of slashing MediCare and privatizing Social Security and cutting spending to social programs for the poor, we STILL wouldn't have a budget in.......2080

Somehow EPIC FAIL just isn't a strong enough term

Put Something On It!

David Corn appeared on MSNBC opposite Republican hack Brad Blakeman today to discuss Karl Rove's book. Normally this wouldn't be an earth shattering event because dozens of these segments happen every day on cable news. BUT Corn came up with a diabolical/genius way of shutting Blakeman up when he was lying through his teeth, something Republicans do on a daily basis now with little or no blowback. Instead of just leaving it at calling Blakeman a liar, he challenged him to a $1,000 bet that he was right and Blakeman was wrong. And of course Blakeman wanted NOOOOOOOOOO parts of that bet. It was wildly amusing watching him try to filibuster the rest of the segment without admitting he wouldn't agree to Corn's challenge.

More of this please!

The Time For Talk Is Over!

This Looks Familiar

Gotta love The Onion! LOL


Breaking News: Some Bullshit Happening Somewhere

Tight Jeans, Funny Haircuts, Dancing On The Screen...

Dat new TI. "I'm Back"

Somewhere Charles Blow Is Gritting His Teeth...

...because Mo'nique won an oscar for her supporting role NOT playing a crack mother in a movie NOT made by Tyler Perry.


;)

Department Of Corrections

It seems in my righteous outrage today I made a mistake. The footage of George Stephanopoulus interviewing Sec Sebelius and Bart Stupak was from "Good Morning America", not "This Week". Further it seems the interview took place BEFORE the fact check on "ABC Nightly News". It seems that George MIGHT and I emphasize MIGHT have been in the dark about Stupak's claim at the time it was made.

I hold journalists to a pretty high standard and its only fair that I hold myself to the same. I was wrong this time plain and simple. My apologies.

Mgmnt

The REAL Reason People Aren't Behind Health Care Reform

Its because our media refuses to do its fucking job. Prime example, earlier this week ABC News investigates Bart Stupak's claim that the Senate health care reform bill requires the government to subsidize abortion with tax dollars. The investigation came to a clear cut answer, the claim is FALSE as its typed in red across the screen during the piece.



Fast forward to today and you have the very same network hosting a debate about health care reform. George Stephanopolous is hosting both HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the aforementioned pro life Democrat Bart Stupak. Now it would be different if this conversation was supposed to be about the bill as a whole, then MAYBE I could understand Stephanopolous being so unprepared for Stupak's argument. But being that this WHOLE segment was supposed to be about Stupak's opposition to the bill over abortion rights and his own network had already investigated Stupak's claim about the bill, you might think Stephanopolous would have been ready to step in and call him out for being wrong, lying or both over the language in the Senate bill.

And you'd be wrong.



So to recap, even thought ABC News did an investigation and found that Bart Stupak was wrong about the language in the Senate bill when it comes to government funding of abortion, the same network's host of "This Week" framed the whole debate on if they would be able to change the language of the bill so as to placate Stupak on something that he is totally wrong about......according to ABC News.

I swear I wanted to type this whole post in all caps because I just noticed this right after I left a comment about how the White House needs to take on the media more if they want to do better with their agenda but there is no way that anything I type on this blog whether it be in bold, in red, more cuss words or whatever could truly convey the contempt I am feeling at this moment for our media. Contempt and righteous anger. They are playing around with people's lives and instead of taking that seriously they just keep doing the same shit every day either more concerned with ratings than substance, or so cowed by right wingers that they have decided to just not do their job rather than be accused of "liberal bias".

I certainly hope that there is a hell and there is a special place carved out for journalists who allow harm to be done to their readers because they don't have the guts or the conscious to do their damn job.

Lay Down With Dogs...

...and you end up with fleas!

This should be an abject lesson to both CNN and all other credible news outlets that treating Liz Cheney and her bunch of pro torture sychophant followers with anything other than disdain and scorn will end up tainting you with their stench.

US Senate Candidate Congressman Kendrick Meek Endorses PTDB Through Reconcilliation!

From the Palm Beach Post

U.S. Senate candidate Kendrick Meek on Friday called for a simple majority vote and reconciliation process to approve President Obama's health care reforms.

"We Floridians deserve an up-and-down vote on health care," the Democratic candidate said at a campaign rally here. "There can be no 'let's start all over again.' We can't move the goal post further and further away. We need health care and we need it to be affordable."

Meek, who addressed 50 supporters at the St. John's Missionary Baptist Church, said he's less than 10,000 signatures shy of obtaining the 112,476 he needs to become the first statewide candidate ever to earn a spot on a ballot by petition. The petition must be filed by March 29.

Widely considered the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, Meek has flown under the radar while Republican candidates Marco Rubio and Charlie Crist have been engaged in a high-profile primary battle.

Meek said his petition drive makes him the candidate of the people.

"It's a grass roots movement, and so many people are taking part in this historic movement," Meek said. "It shows that we are organized, believe it or not, as Democrats. Independents and Republicans will also play a role in that effort, and I'm excited about it."

This is a true progressive candidate that people need to get behind!

Keep America Afraid

This is a dope web ad. Hope it spreads like wildfire!



By the way Democratic ad people, that song at the end of the ad, you know the same song featured prominently in the movie "Donnie Darko"? Yeah, that's good background music for attack ads.

Just sayin

Byrd Still Has Some Bite

Check out this excerpt from a letter to the editor sent by Democratic Senator Robert Byrd, he of 90+ years of age.

With all due respect, the Daily Mail's hyperbole about "imposing government control," acts of "disrespect to the American people" and "corruption" of Senate procedures resembles more the barkings from the nether regions of Glennbeckistan than the "sober and second thought" of one of West Virginia's oldest and most respected daily newspapers.

If only some of his younger collegues showed such chutzpah!

Who Does This Sound Like?

The California man who opened fire last night outside the Pentagon was a property rights extremist who railed against the government's ability to "confiscate the resources of their citizens to fund schemes that need only be justified by lies and deception," and wanted to "eliminate the role of the government in education."

In a recorded manifesto called "Directions To Freedom", the audio of which he posted online in 2006, John Patrick Bedell, of Hollister, California, praised private property as "the most successful basis for structuring society that humanity has ever known."

Bedell shot two police officers last night during the rampage, before being mortally wounded himself.

"Communist and socialist governments that abolished or disregarded private property," said Bedell in the recording, "created poverty, repression and murder on a truly enormous scale." But, he continued, "Even in the United States, however, there has been a continual erosion of protection of private property justified by the belief that government is an efficient instrument for the positive direction of society."

Bedell added: "Governments lack the profit and loss incentives that individuals and private organizations must use..."

And he warned: "When governments are able to confiscate the resources of their citizens to fund schemes that need only be justified by lies and deception enormous disasters can result."

Bedell also denounced the monetary system, a frequent bete noir of anti-government extremists. "When the government can control how private property is used," he said, "and especially when the government controls the monetary system that is use to exchange private property, the government has the mechanisms and the motivation to control individuals to the smallest detail."

Bedell even railed against the concept of public education. "Government control of the schools that shape minds is pervasive in today's world," he said. "The imperative to defend the freedom of conscience must lead us to eliminate the role of the government in education and leave parents and communities free to raise their children as they see fit." He denounced public education as "no more legitimate than a government-run church for universal religious training."

TPM

I wonder how many people are going to have to get hurt or killed before the mainstream media starts calling a spade a spade.

A Real Grassroots Campaign

Boynton Beach, Fla. - Kendrick Meek joined supporters and volunteers in Boynton Beach today as the campaign's historic effort to help Kendrick qualify for the ballot by petition comes to a close later this month.

"From day one of our petition drive we have been focused on people of this state, not on their political parties or ideology. Our fight is for the hard working individuals in this community who want good paying jobs to support themselves and their families. Retirees in this community are searching for work or their savings are going down. Both of these situations were never a part of their retirement plans. We are reaching out to Floridians from all communities who want a future that is better than their present, that rejects the status quo, and puts the interests of people ahead of the powerful," said Kendrick Meek, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate.

Kendrick Meek and his campaign are entering the final month of an unprecedented petition drive. By collecting 112,476 petitions from Florida voters, Kendrick will be the first statewide candidate in Florida history to earn his place on the ballot by petition.

In recent weeks, Kendrick has met with citrus growers in Dover, students in Gainesville, young professionals in Tallahassee, veterans in Pensacola, unemployed families in Orlando, scientists and engineers in Daytona Beach, and received endorsements from Florida's teachers, firefighters and police officers.

They're Not Embarrassed

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Jon Stewart Once Again Practicing Journalism

There is at least one person on TV willing to challenge FoxNews' bullshit line about being fair and balanced without any false equivalence. Unfortunately that person happens to be a comedian by trade...

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My Bill Halter Messaging Manifesto

I left this comment over at The Plum Line explaining how Bill Halter can win the messaging war with Blanche Lincoln. There is no other Democrat I would love to see get kicked to the curb this cycle than Lincoln and I for one want to see her go down in glorious fashion.

Aye, Bill Halter or Bill Halter’s people. If you are reading this let me give you some free advice to beat Blanche Lincoln. I know you might ask why you should follow my advice, but hey I have been right about messaging if not policy most of the last year. So here’s what you do.

Use Republican tactics to paint Lincoln as a Republican.

You see she is basically overlooking the primary right now and already going for the center for the general election. That could and should be a fatal flaw for her but only if you exploit it. In her web ad Blanche Lincoln just, say it with me, “disparaged all the Democrats in Arkansas” and you should DEMAND an apology. Every time Blanche Lincoln says something bad about Democrats in Congress or President Lincoln, what YOU want to do is conflate that with every day hard working blue collar Democrats in Arkansas. And when I say every time, I mean every time. Hit her so many times with this that she ends up having to either stop bashing President Obama and his agenda OR declare her intentions to switch parties. In point of fact you should ask, over and over and over again, what makes her different from any Republican. Point to President Obama’s words at the Senate Democratic caucus a few weeks ago when he said voters are going to start asking why should they vote for a Democrat over a Republican if they vote exactly the same.

Stay on the offensive. Always always punch first. No matter what she says in public find a way to make it a bad thing. If she sides with Republicans point that out and say thats who she really is anyway. If she sides with Democrats say she is a flip flopper just running to the left to try to get the nomination only to have 6 more years of standing against her party. Get big bold signs printed up that have quotes of her bashing the Democratic Party and especially Democratic issues like health care reform and the clean air act. Remember hunters and fisherman don’t much like pollution in Arkansas.

Lastly turn the big tent around on Blanche Lincoln. In order to keep her from pigeon holing you has an ideologue which is what she is now going to try to do, paint HER as the ideologuy who only wants conservatives in the Democratic party. Say you will work with Democrats of all stripes but at the end of the day being a Democrat should come with some unity on big issues. Lincoln on the other hand throws tantrums when people disagree in her party and she has nothing but disdain for Democrats who aren’t conservative. Say that maybe somebody as rigid ideologically as her would fit in better with Republicans.

Again, link her to Republicans over and over again especially against big issues like Health Care.

Every shot she is going to try to take at you anticipate and turn it back on her. She will try to link you to outside interest groups. Instead of responding and defending yourself like you have in recent days, turn it around on her and say she is bought and paid for by special interests. Point out the small average size of your donations with out denoting where they are coming from and point out that your views on stuff like health care and the public option coincide with the people of Arkansas, while Blanche Lincoln takes special interest money and votes against the will of her constituents. So who should the people of Arkansas believe? A guy who gets small donations and runs on issues that enjoy an overwhelming majority of support, or a woman who gets big donations and finds every opportunity to bash the Democrats and vote against the will of the people of Arkansas?

Offense offense offense.

Oh and to keep from getting accused of being too rough with Lincoln because she’s a woman, and yes they are going to try to do that once you gain ground, don’t always attack her directly. Instead say something to the effect of “Its not so much Blanche Lincoln I have a problem with, but the special interests that continue to influence her votes.

ATTENTION do not in anyway say anything that could be construed as her taking money for favors or being a “whor*”

Welp that’s it. If you follow that plan you win going away and you still haven’t gone too far left for the general. Lincoln’s mistake is her hubris in thinking she won’t have to go left at all until its too late.

Thank me later

Righteous indignation should be the buzz word every day for the Halter campaign in my opinion. Turn Democratic voters off to Blanche Lincoln in such a way that they can't wait for election day to get her ass out of there. Drive voter turnout by saying that if Lincoln wins the primary its guaranteed a Republican will represent Arkansas whether she wins the general or not.

Somewhere Michael Eric Dyson's Head Just Exploded

Jay Z went by the White House yesterday and had a short meeting with President Obama.

I can't imagine the hell thats about to break loose with the "Soul Patrol" behind this! LOL

Black History Month Fail

If you are a teacher that sincerely believes its appropriate to have your students "celebrate" O.J. Simpson and RuPaul for black history month then you are too dumb to teach MY kids.

Also, if you are a parent who thinks this is no big deal then you are too dumb to raise YOUR kids.

real talk.

The Politics Of Fear

Leaked RNC document reveals that the GOP will attempt to fundraise off scaring the shit out of their donors with words like "socialism" and pictures of President Obama as the Joker.

Also water is still wet, and ice is still cold.

Yawn

Pass The Damn Bill!!!

President Obama calls for an up or down vote on health care reform.

You Had Me At Your First Graff

My gut reaction on reading Marc Thiessen's new book, Courting Disaster, was: "Why is a speechwriter who's never served in the military or intelligence community acting as an expert on interrogation and national security?" Certainly, everyone is entitled to a voice in the debate over the lawfulness and efficacy of President Bush's abusive interrogation program, regardless of qualifications. But if you're not an expert on a subject, shouldn't you interview experts before expressing an opinion? Instead, Thiessen relies solely on the opinions of the CIA interrogators who used torture and abuse and are thus most vulnerable to prosecution for war crimes. That makes his book less a serious discussion of interrogation policy than a literary defense of war criminals. Nowhere in this book will you find the opinions of experienced military interrogators who successfully interrogated Islamic extremists. Not once does he cite Army Doctrine—which warns of the negative consequences of torture and abuse. Courting Disaster is nothing more than the defense's opening statement in a war crimes trial.

Former Senior Military Interrogator "Matthew Alexander"

Trust me, it only gets better from there. You will want to read it all the way through.

She Goin In, She Goin In, She Goin In

...and she gone go hard, and she gone go hard, and she gone go hard.

Rachel Maddow pretty much ethered the whole Republican caucus in the Senate tonight, it was magnificent to behold!

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Dan Hasn't Lost His Touch

Froomkin calls bullshit on all the Rahm love circulating in the media at the moment as only he can lol.

Chris Matthews Is a Dick

So Tweety decides that he wants to talk about Jim Bunning blocking unemployment benefits for millions of Americans today. But instead of hitting Bunning for being an asshole, he invites on the Democratic nominee for Bunning's seat to bash HIM because the Democrats are being mean to Bunning.

No, I'm not kidding.

Its bad enough that Tweety ambushes the guy and acts like he is in the wrong because Democrats are exposing Bunning's hypocrisy, he also gets damn near every fact of the situation wrong proclaiming that Bunning wants to borrow from TARP to pay for the benefits when in point of fact Bunning is trying to kill the stimulus bill by borrowing from it. And of course Matthews TOTALLY forgot to mention that a few weeks ago when PAYGO was up for a vote, his baseball idol Bunning voted against it.

This kind of shit is beyond the pale and it would be helpful if people punished bad journalism like this rather than rewarded it with multi million dollar deals.

MSNBC and Chris Matthews should fucking apologize for such biased behavior.