Call For Muslim Action By Muslims

The asphyxiated politics of the Muslim world - Opinion - Al Jazeera English:

...The world of Islam is at a crossroad, either to make or break. There are plenty of talented and visionary people with personal integrity in Muslim societies who should now come to politics and make a serious effort to cleanse it from the dirt.

Let there arise a new breed of Muslim politicians who have the steel and skill of turning anarchy into optimism.

Econ Short Course

The Obama Recovery - NYTimes.com:

Suppose that for some reason you decided to start hitting yourself in the head, repeatedly, with a baseball bat. You’d feel pretty bad. Correspondingly, you’d probably feel a lot better if and when you finally stopped. What would that improvement in your condition tell you?

It certainly wouldn’t imply that hitting yourself in the head was a good idea. It would, however, be an indication that the pain you were experiencing wasn’t a reflection of anything fundamentally wrong with your health. Your head wasn’t hurting because you were sick; it was hurting because you kept hitting it with that baseball bat.

And now you understand the basics of what has been happening to several major economies, including the United States, over the past few years. In fact, you understand these basics better than many politicians and commentators...

Comment Of The Day: Blue Labor Edition

When�New York City Police Walk Off the Job - NYTimes.com:



Someone

People have criticized some of the actions and procedures of the police. They have gotten indignant about that and pouted and refused to do their job. Well, people have been criticizing teachers, doctors, and federal government workers (look at the recent criticism of the CDC, for example) forever, and you know what? All of those people keep showing up and doing their jobs. The police need to get over it and grow up

NYPD Labor Action

The NYPD's Insubordination–And Why the Right Should Oppose It - The Atlantic:

He riffs, "Well, we can only hope the NYPD unions and de Blasio settle their differences soon so that the police can go back to arresting people for reasons other than 'when they have to.' The NYPD’s failure to arrest and cite people will also end up costing the city huge amounts of money that it won’t be able to seize from its citizens, which is likely the real point. That’s the 'punishment' for the de Blasio administration for not supporting them. One has to wonder if they even understand, or care, that their 'work stoppage' is giving police state critics exactly what they want—less harsh enforcement of the city’s laws."

That's how some policing reformers see it. Others, like myself, don't object to strictly enforcing laws against, say, public urination, traffic violations, or illegal parking, but would love it if the NYPD stopped frisking innocents without probable cause or even reasonable suspicion, needlessly escalating encounters with civilians, and (especially) killing unarmed people, goals that are perfectly compatible with data-driven policing that targets actual disorder. Keep squeegee men at bay–and leave innocent black and Hispanic men alone.

Why Wasn't She Gunned Down?

It's In the Culture:

Woman drives through suburban Chattanooga neighborhood, clad in body armor, with hand out the driver's side window shooting at cars and people. After being cornered, Julia Shields, 45, pointed her firearm at police but was taken into custody without injury.

Shields is being charged with 3 counts of attempted first degree murder, 7 counts of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, felony evading arrest, and felony reckless endangerment.

Climate Change Morons

The 11 Dumbest Things Conservative Media Said About Climate Change in 2014 | Blog | Media Matters for America:

This year saw landmark reports on climate change, detailing the ever-increasing scientific certainty that human activities are driving catastrophic climate change and that action needs to be taken to prevent the worst effects. Yet despite the fact that more Americans than ever support action on climate change, conservative media went to ridiculous lengths to cast doubt on the scientific consensus behind global warming, citing everything from free market economics to witchcraft, touting conspiracy theories and predictions of an "ice age," and even fulfilling Godwin's law...

Can GOPer Racism Be Clearer?

Scalise doesn't deny speech to white supremacist group - CNN.com:

Rep. Steve Scalise, the No. 3-ranking House Republican, isn't denying a Louisiana blog's allegation that he spoke at a white supremacist forum in 2002.

According to an agenda for the event and notes attendees posted afterward, Scalise appeared at the National/International EURO Workshop on Civil Rights -- a forum hosted by a white nationalist organization founded by David Duke, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan...

The Northern Strategy

New York’s epic white backlash: How a horrid 1960s relic is still with us today - Salon.com:

...New Yorkers like to feel superior to Southerners and Red Staters when it comes to race relations, but they don’t have the right. Just as Dr. King said Chicago could teach Mississippi how to hate, after he tried to challenge segregation there, New York shows what happens when fear of crime turns good people into frightened authoritarians, who’ll trade security for occasional police misconduct, as long as they don’t have to watch it on video.

*

I’ve known for quite a while that Richard Nixon’s so-called “Southern strategy” — to lure white Democrats to the GOP largely around issues of race — had a strong Northern component targeting white working class “ethnics.” But I only realized writing my book that I was raised in the capital of the GOP’s Northern strategy...

The Daily Flashback: GOPer Mole Edition

A Right-Wing Mole at ABC News — FAIR:

...Karl came to mainstream journalism via the Collegiate Network, an organization primarily devoted to promoting and supporting right-leaning newspapers on college campuses (Extra!, 9-10/91)—such as the Rutgers paper launched by the infamous James O’Keefe (Political Correction, 1/27/10). The network, founded in 1979, is one of several projects of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, which seeks to strengthen conservative ideology on college campuses. William F. Buckley was the ISI’s first president, and the current board chair is American Spectator publisher Alfred Regnery. Several leading right-wing pundits came out of Collegiate-affiliated papers, including Ann Coulter, Dinesh D'Souza, Michelle Malkin, Rich Lowry and Laura Ingraham (Washington Times, 11/28/04)...

The Crazy List

GQ Presents: America's 20 Craziest Politicians:

How do you feel about facts? Do you hate them? Are they super annoying, like science? Are you frightened of communists, Muslims, and vaginas? Good news! This month, America is inaugurating a new class of elected representatives, and while some of them are bright, able politicians, a few of them are seriously looney. And they'll be in good company...

Barking Todd

 Chuck Todd speaks a truth that Americans must understand when watching ‘the news’

...Chuck Todd then interjected. “We all sit there because we all know the first time we bark is the last time we do the show,” Chuck Todd said. “… All of a sudden, no one will come on your show.”

W. Kamau Bell came in with an interesting point. He said that many times the traditional mainstream media uses the comedian’s satire to say what they dare not say. In effect comedians get to bark. He points out an interesting exception.

“The weird thing is that Fox News also gets to bark,” W. Kamau Bell said “And I think sometimes the left leaning media is afraid of barking.”

In other words, if you are touting the narrative of the plutocracy, rules do not apply to you. It is imperative that Americans understand how to process our so called news in the context of what the talking heads are allowed to say. We will make better electoral decisions then.

Fixing The Force

Being a cop showed me just how racist and violent the police are. There’s only one fix. - The Washington Post:

...Unfortunately, I don’t think better training alone will reduce police brutality. My fellow officers and I took plenty of classes on racial sensitivity and on limiting the use of force.

The problem is that cops aren’t held accountable for their actions, and they know it. These officers violate rights with impunity. They know there’s a different criminal justice system for civilians and police.

Even when officers get caught, they know they’ll be investigated by their friends, and put on paid leave. My colleagues would laughingly refer to this as a free vacation. It isn’t a punishment. And excessive force is almost always deemed acceptable in our courts and among our grand juries. Prosecutors are tight with law enforcement, and share the same values and ideas...

The Daily Flashback: Copier Fornication Edition

Interior Dept. scandal: Sex, drugs, energy deals probed at Denver office - The Denver Post:

Government workers in Denver engaged in secret sex and drug abuse with oil company employees and accepted thousand of dollars in gifts while handling billions of dollars worth of energy contracts, federal investigators said today.

Employees at the Minerals Management Service including the former head of the Denver division repeatedly and "without remorse" violated ethics rules over a four-year period, the Interior Department's Inspector General said...

You have to read and interpret. 

Cop Union Calming

Police Unions 'Standing Down' After Controversial Comments In Wake Of NYPD Shooting:

..."Much like we shouldn't be blaming a president for the deaths of soldiers on the battlefield, let's not point fingers at the mayor for a madman's actions. It's ridiculous to believe that if only de Blasio had been more like Rudy Giuliani, Officers Liu and Ramos would be alive," said NY1 Political Director Bob Hardt in a column. "It's the same sloppy and dangerous logic in which people tried to blame American foreign policy for the 9/11 attacks, saying the chickens have come home to roost. There are plenty of chickens that fly around on their own."

De Blasio also isn't the first mayor to get into an argument with the PBA; the union has gone after at least the last four New York City mayors..

If we have to fear police unions...

Gumming An Argument To Death

What Everyone (Else) Has Wrong About Ferguson | Natural Rights Libertarian:

...What he was authorized to do, and what seems in fact to have happened, was that he used the grand jury as an impartial fact-finder, and let the jurors come to their own conclusion without his making a recommendation. It seems quite obvious that prosecutors (and possibly even McCulloch) have routinely flouted these standards in other instances, and so shame on them. But this hardly justifies criticism of the prosecutor’s conduct in the Brown investigation.

Start With Teachers

Let’s all screw the 1 percent: The simple move Obama could make to strengthen the rest of us - Salon.com:

...“So what’s changed since the 1960s and ’70s?” progressive billionare venture capitalist Nick Hanauer asked in Politico back in November. “Overtime pay, in part,” he answered: “Your parents got a lot of it, and you don’t. And it turns out that fair overtime standards are to the middle class what the minimum wage is to low-income workers: not everything, but an indispensable labor protection that is absolutely essential to creating a broad and thriving middle class...”

The Daily Flashback: Jeb & Terri Edition

Charles Pierce on Terri Schiavo and Jeb Bush - Idiot America Book Excerpt - Esquire:

...Now comes son Jeb (!), and he has this family trait in spades, even though a lot of people are working hard through the holidays to re-cast him as the reasonable candidate of the "Republican Establishment." However, back when his dim sibling was in the White House, Jeb (!) was governor of Florida and, as such, he helped put some wonderful people doing god's own thankless work through a personal kind of hell just because Jeb (!) thought there would be a political advantage to be gained by doing so, both for himself and for his dim brother. He allied himself with vandals, trespassers, and people who put bounties on other people's heads. He put the power of his office behind the efforts of people who call in bomb threats to elementary schools just because they happen to be down the road. He threw in his lot with the people who phone in death threats to federal judges. For his own pathetic political aggrandizement, he helped an organized brigade of dangerous, god-bothering lunatics to threaten and to torment some people whose shoes he is not fit to shine...

Rant Of The Day: Bad Cop Edition

Monday Reads: Giuliani and other Tools for a Police State | Sky Dancing:

...I’ve seen it all and I’ve experienced it. People are fed up with out of control policing and it’s not because of anything any politician has said. Police departments have brought all of the criticism, protest, and mistrust onto themselves.. This does not mean that police deserve to be gunned down or to be the victims of violence. However, I’m not surprised to see things escalate when justice is unavailable to so many. The crazed few always start acting out the frustrations of the many. You see, the American dream should not include places where you are more afraid of the people paid to protect you than you are of most anything else or where things are so unfair that your already deranged mind can follow martyrdom to some extreme awful end. I am completely saddened by the deaths of the two Brooklyn Police officers. But, their deaths should not be used as an excuse to give bad policing and bad police officers a pass. Their deaths should also not lead to political chest beating and police state jingoism. What we should realize is that we’ve got a broken criminal justice system and it needs to be fixed so that it turns no one into victims. I’m tired of being afraid of the police which is a place I’ve personally been for over 5 years now. Obama didn’t make me feel this way...

Origins Of Teh Crazy: Religion

My horrible right-wing past: Confessions of a one-time religious right icon - Salon.com:

...The short answer is that the American right is not about politics as most people understand it but about religious absolutes. As the New York Times noted on the single-minded desire to subvert President Obama’s overhaul of the broken immigration system, “And in their most audacious plans, Tea Party groups are preparing to recruit challengers to run against high-profile Republicans they accuse of betraying them — as they did when they toppled Eric Cantor, the former House majority leader.”

This zealous negativity has a long history. I was part of it as the nepotistic sidekick to my religious-right evangelist father. The 1970s Evangelical anti-abortion movement that Dad (Evangelical leader Francis Schaeffer), C. Everett Koop (who would be Ronald Reagan’s surgeon general) and I helped create seduced the Republican Party. We turned it into an extremist far-right party that is fundamentally anti-American. There would have been no Tea Party without the foundation we built...

Hannity Also Wins Award

Sean Hannity has ALL-CAPS Twitter meltdown after being named ‘worst’ Fox News host:

Fox News host Sean Hannity did not react well to a media poll naming him the “Worst Host” on Fox News, unleashing a series of tweets on Twitter attacking the website that conducted the poll, while draping his fury in purported concern for the two police officers killed in Brooklyn on Saturday...

You'd think he'd be happy being named biggest turd in the toilet.

Will Wins Award

Media Matters Names George Will 'Misinformer Of The Year':

Conservative columnist George Will will be named the "Misinformer of the Year" by Media Matters on Monday, staffers at the liberal-leaning group tell The Huffington Post...

Today In GOP Crooks

NY Republican Lawmaker Accused Of Molesting Boy Scouts Refuses To Resign | Crooks and Liars

Michael Kelsey, a Republican lawmaker in Dutchess County, New York is
refusing to step down as he awaits his next court date for charges of
inappropriately touching two 15-year-old boys during a Boy Scout trip
last August...

 Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) To Plead Guilty To Tax Evasion

The good citizens of New York's 13th district (mostly Staten Island) saw
fit to re-elect this schmuck in the midterms. Now they'll soon have the
dubious distinction of being represented by a convicted felon... 

FL Edges NY

Census: Florida eases ahead of New York in population:

New York dropped slightly behind Florida as the third most populous state in the nation, according to U.S. Census data released Tuesday.

Florida has been creeping up on New York. Tuesday's figures showed that Florida surpassed the population of the Empire State by 147,070 people. Florida's population was up 1.5 percent, from 19,600,311 to 19,893,297 as July 1. New York's population was up 0.26 percent, from 19,695,680 to 19,746,227...

More Fox Hypocrisy

How Fox News Covers Right-Wing Cop Killers | Blog | Media Matters for America:

Claiming to be acting under the bloody "banner of Liberty and Truth," Jerad Miller and his wife Amanda, entered CiCi's Pizza in Las Vegas on Sunday right before noon and executed two local policemen on their lunch break. Authorities say Jerad approached one officer while he was refilling his soda cup and shot him in the head from behind, before he and Amanda opened fire on his partner...

Con Comment Round-Up

Conservatives Go Insane Over Progressive Boycott Article - Here's Some Of Their Best FB Comments |

And The Sun Also Rose...

Conservatives’ sick reaction to NYPD officer killings: Blame Obama and de Blasio - Salon.com:

Conservatives seized on the shooting deaths of two New York City police officers on Saturday to attack President Obama, Mayor Bill de Blasio, and other figures who have spoken out on the fraught relationship between police and minority communities, with some going so far as to blame them for the killings of the two officers...

Vet Shafting: Xmas Edition

2014's Final Act Of Republican Obstruction, And How The D.C. Press (Again) Looked Away | Blog | Media Matters for America:

...Yet after passing the House on a simple voice vote, a truly remarkable accomplishment in today's historically gridlocked environment, the bill was blocked by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK). Claiming it duplicates already existing services provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs, that the bill "throws money and it doesn't solve the real problem," and its costs aren't offset by cuts elsewhere in the budget, Coburn, a medical doctor himself, on Monday refused to allow the health care bill to be voted on...

Policing Police

15 reasons America’s police are so brutal - Salon.com:

...The DOJ’s observation that many of the same problems of excessive force are back more than 10 years after a similar federal investigation and settlement suggests that reforming America’s runaway police departments is going to be incredibly difficult. Despite public protests, there’s little evidence that police themselves want to change from within.

Obama Agonistes: The Liberation

Obama Unbound - NYTimes.com:

There may not be a lightness to his step, a lilt in his voice or a bit of jauntiness returned to his manner. The office ages everyone prematurely, and makes spontaneity all but impossible. But President Obama is acting like a man who’s been given the political equivalent of a testosterone boost.

Perhaps the best thing to happen to him was the crushing blow his party took in the midterm elections. Come January, Republicans will have their largest House majority in 84 years — since Herbert Hoover was president. Granted, no politician wants to join Hoover and history in the same sentence. But Obama is not cowering or conceding. He’s been liberated by defeat, becoming the president that many of his supporters hoped he would be...

Clinton Likes Cuba Move

With Cuba Decision, Obama Hands Hillary Clinton A 2016 Gift:

Potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton knows a political gift when she sees one.

She was quick to embrace the step this week when President Barack Obama, a fellow Democrat no longer having to face an electorate, relaxed U.S. policy toward Cuba.

While assailed by Republicans opposed to restoring ties with the communist-led island, the action has the power to solidify support for Democrats among increasingly influential Latino voters and appeal to voters in farm states like Iowa eager to do business in Havana...

Right Thinking?

WSJ Just Realized The Anti-ACA Lawsuit It's Pushing Could Be Ruinous For Americans -- Including Republican Voters | Blog | Media Matters for America:

The number of people who could lose their insurance subsidies will be far greater than the number cited by the Journal, which only accounts for consumers who bought insurance in 2014. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) analysis of Congressional Budget Office enrollment estimates, far more Americans will be eligible for subsidies in 2016 after the ACA is fully implemented -- meaning upwards of 13.5 million people who are otherwise eligible for tax credits could soon lose out depending on the ruling in King. As KFF also pointed out, the Journal's fear about the impact on Republican governors is well-founded, since "[m]ore than half are in a few big anti-ACA states that chose not to run their own exchanges: Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, and Pennsylvania..."

Econ Obvious 101

Robert Reich: The Reagan revolution is killing America’s middle class - Salon.com:

...One factor here has been a sharp decline in union membership. In the mid 1970s, 25 percent of the private-sector workforce was unionized.

Then came the Reagan revolution. By the end of the 1980s, only 17 percent of the private workforce was unionized. Today, fewer than 7 percent of the nation’s private-sector workers belong to a union.

This means most workers no longer have the bargaining power to get a share of the gains from growth.

Another structural change is the drop in the minimum wage. In 1979, it was $9.67 an hour (in 2013 dollars). By 1990, it had declined to $6.84. Today it’s $7.25, well below where it was in 1979.

Given that workers are far more productive now – computers have even increased the output of retail and fast food workers — the minimum wage should be even higher.

By setting a floor on wages, a higher minimum helps push up other wages. It undergirds higher median household incomes.

The only way to grow the economy in a way that benefits the bottom 90 percent is to change the structure of the economy. At the least, this requires stronger unions and a higher minimum wage...

Cops Changing?

Police Nationwide Alter Tactics, Bolster Arsenal After Protests, Killings:

With tensions running high over the killings of blacks by police, departments around the country are changing policies and procedures to curb the use of deadly force, ease public distrust and protect officers from retaliation.

New York City plans to issue stun guns to hundreds more officers. The Milwaukee department is making crisis-intervention training mandatory. And in Akron, Ohio, police have begun working in pairs on all shifts for their own safety...

Always, Always, Follow The Money

Congressman Who Blocks D.C. Pot Measure Now Faces A Major Backlash - attn::

...Attn: also covered Harris' connection to the health care industry, which supplies his largest amount of campaign contributions. In particular, Harris has received campaign donations from Maryland’s Emergent BioSolutions, whose Epsil product treats common side effects of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Any legal access to marijuana then, which is regularly prescribed to stave the deleterious effects of cancer and chemotherapy, is a direct competitor to Emergent...

Cruz Cries

Ted Cruz apologizes to his Republican colleagues.:

...Ted Cruz did something on Tuesday he never does. He apologized. That is equivalent to bringing him to his knees given his intrinsic conceit. Reuters reported his apology as follows...

Pot Prohibition Ending?

Congress quietly ends federal government's ban on medical marijuana - LA Times:

Tucked deep inside the 1,603-page federal spending measure is a provision that effectively ends the federal government's prohibition on medical marijuana and signals a major shift in drug policy.

The bill's passage over the weekend marks the first time Congress has approved nationally significant legislation backed by legalization advocates. It brings almost to a close two decades of tension between the states and Washington over medical use of marijuana.

Under the provision, states where medical pot is legal would no longer need to worry about federal drug agents raiding retail operations. Agents would be prohibited from doing so...

Diabetic might be happy, in addition to the stoner contingent, since diabetics can't drink alcohol, they might have a less dangerous way to get a smidgen of pleasure from life, given that other pleasures are usually denied.

Keystone Econ Rationale Fading

Keystone: The Republican Congress's First Priority May No Longer Make Sense - Bloomberg Politics:

...While Keystone has long been a top priority for Republicans who argue that the pipeline linking tar sands oil fields in Alberta, Canada, and an existing network in Steele City, Nebraska, is a no brainer, the economic dynamics that have bolstered the GOP's rationale for building it have changed considerably...

Hating On Vets

It's an AP story so no words: Coburn blocks bill on veterans' suicide prevention

Cruz Bombs

Ted Cruz's stunt backfires as Harry Reid & Democrats smile big:

Ted Cruz thought he was doing something that would give him notoriety. He was going to stand up to President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Democrats. Instead, he got eggs all over his face. His immaturity and stupidity was there for all to see. Harry Reid took Ted Cruz’s lemon and made sweet tasting lemonade...

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Torture Tales

Daily Politics Blog - Charles P. Pierce - Political Blogging - Esquire:"There Is Nothing New Under The Son Of A Bitch" 
By Charles P. Pierce 12/15/2014 at 4:14 PM

As the apologists fanned out over the weekend, and as the country's attention span wanes and the new normal asserts itself, some of us decline to let go of what was revealed about the war criminals amongst us, particularly those who bragged about what they'd arranged, got all puffed up with the courage to be savages, and who already had benefitted in their careers mightily from The Great Mulligan demanded by the last administration for "keeping us safe," if you don't count the anthrax attacks and that other one, in which 3000 people died. There is not a single defense raised by these barbarians that has not been raised in the past by people who wanted to torture people with impunity. They can't even summon up the common humanity to concoct original alibis...

Instant Replay: O Shafting Clinton

Daily PUMA:

While DailyPUMA is not surprised to see Barack Obama staffers stabbing Hillary Clinton in the back and supporting Elizabeth Warren for 2016, it's also probably because the Barack Obama staffers are soon to be out of work.

Hypocrisy North

The North isn’t better than the South: The real history of modern racism and segregation above the Mason-Dixon line - Salon.com:

...Yet important generalizations emerged. There was a surprising amount of agreement among whites when it came to race. Liberal leaders and purveyors of the white backlash alike believed that their region was a bastion of racial tolerance. Louise Day Hicks led the white resistance against school integration in Boston. At the same time, she championed her city’s enlightenment. “The important thing is that I know I’m not bigoted,” Hicks said. “To me that word means all the dreadful Southern segregationist Jim Crow business that’s always shocked and revolted me.” By the same token, many liberals blanched at the prospects of open housing and school integration. Racial conservatives and progressives shared a vast middle ground. They could agree that they were more advanced than southerners, that African Americans could rise high in the North, and that African Americans ought neither move next door nor enroll their children in majority-white schools...

Stealing Pensions For The Rich

Kansas Governor Proposes Using Pension Money to Cover Budget Gaps Created By His Tax Cuts:

In 2012, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed a landmark bill that delivered big tax cuts to high income earners and businesses. Less than two years after that tax cut, the state's income tax revenues plummeted by a quarter-billion dollars -- and now Brownback is pushing to use money for public employees’ pensions to instead cover the state's ensuing budget shortfalls. 

Brownback's proposal: Slash the state’s required pension contribution by $40 million to balance the state budget. But Kansas already has one of the worst-funded pension systems in the nation. The state was also recently sanctioned by the Securities and Exchange Commission for not accurately disclosing the shortfalls...

Darth Lies--- Who Knew?

Dick Cheney Hides Behind Torture Myths To Evade Questions On Meet The Press | Research | Media Matters for America:

Former Vice President Dick Cheney dodged pointed questions from Meet The Press host Chuck Todd by pushing myths about the CIA's use of torture on terrorist suspects during the Bush administration...

The Way It Is

Is It Bad Enough Yet? - NYTimes.com:

THE police killing unarmed civilians. Horrifying income inequality. Rotting infrastructure and an unsafe “safety net.” An inability to respond to climate, public health and environmental threats. A food system that causes disease. An occasionally dysfunctional and even cruel government. A sizable segment of the population excluded from work and subject to near-random incarceration.

You get it: This is the United States, which, with the incoming Congress, might actually get worse...

And I Am The King Of Siam

Koch brother: I'm a social liberal | MSNBC:

David Koch, billionaire donor to conservative causes, claimed once again that he is a “social liberal.” His own political contributions suggest otherwise.

“I’m basically a libertarian, and I’m a conservative on economic matters, and I’m a social liberal,” Koch said in a forthcoming interview with Barbara Walters that was previewed on “This Week” Sunday...

Dems Have A Thought In FL

Dems Have a Clever New Plan to Turn Florida's Governor's Mansion Blue | Mother Jones:

Over the past few years, Republicans across the country have adopted a novel strategy for winning elections: Change the rules to make it harder to vote against them. In seven states, Republicans passed new laws requiring voters to show photo ID before getting a ballot. They pared down early voting. In some states, they even contemplated changing how Electoral College votes are awarded in order to give the GOP candidate an advantage.

Now some Florida Democrats want to change election rules to benefit their own side—by holding big elections in the years that people actually vote. Over the past few election cycles, Democrats have thrived in presidential years, when more voters—especially young and minority voters, who tend to be Democratic—turn out to vote. But the party has floundered in off-year elections, which feature higher percentages of older, more conservative voters. Florida, like 35 other states, elects its governors in midterm years, when there is no presidential race on the ballot. Now a small group of political consultants is mulling a campaign to change that...

Finding The Democratic Soul

Elizabeth Warren goes to war: Why the Democratic Party could seriously change — for real, this time - Salon.com:

...Out of the many reports on Warren’s performance at the “Managing the Economy” conference, I thought the one Salon contributor David Dayen penned for the New Republic did the best job of situating her address within the framework of the fight that’s happening right now among Democrats over the party’s future direction. It would be impossible to categorize the groups perfectly (that Will Rogers quote about being a member of no organized party has endured for a reason). But, in broad strokes, the division is between neoliberals, who want minimal regulations on Wall Street, and populists, who believe Wall Street has become a threat to the middle class. Warren is, by far, the most recognizable member of the latter group, while the neoliberals, lacking a star of their own, have had to settle for Andrew Ross Sorkin, the wunderkind Wall Street reporter who’s repeatedly criticized Warren in the New York Times...

Torture And Chickenhawkery

The War Hero and the Chicken Hawk - NYTimes.com:

...It’s impolite to call somebody a liar. So take it from the rare blunt headline in Politico earlier this week: “Dick Cheney Was Lying About Torture.” This was a piece written by Mark Fallon, who was on the inside — the special agent in charge of a task force that sought information from numerous terror suspects.

What Fallon concluded is what any fair-minded reader of the Senate report will conclude: that “at no time” did the torture program produce intelligence that averted a terrorist threat. Nor did it lead to Osama bin Laden. That break came from a detainee, Hassan Ghul, who “sang like a tweetie bird” from the outset, as one officer said...

Gov. GoodHair On IQ

Rick Perry: 'Running for the presidency's not an IQ test' | MSNBC:

The governor’s new interview with msnbc’s Kasie Hunt was arguably even more informative about Perry’s progress as a national candidate.

For example, Hunt asked the governor, quite candidly, “Are you smart enough to be president of the United States?” He replied:

“Running for the presidency’s not an IQ test,” he said. “It is a test of an individual’s resolve. It’s a test of an individual’s philosophy. It’s a test of an individual’s life experiences. And I think Americans are really ready for a leader that will give them a great hope about the future...”

...The governor’s new interview with msnbc’s Kasie Hunt was arguably even more informative about Perry’s progress as a national candidate.

For example, Hunt asked the governor, quite candidly, “Are you smart enough to be president of the United States?” He replied:

“Running for the presidency’s not an IQ test,” he said...

Obviously.

A Fond Good-Bye To Crazier...

... of the GOP's last round of presidential candidates, Crazy, Crazier, Craziest.



Farewell, Michele Bachmann - Esquire:

The only Congress we have today bid a fond farewell to Michele Bachmann, who thanked the only Congress we have by delivering a farewell address that never will be confused with Washington's Farewell To His Troops, or to the last dying embers of a dumpster fire, for all that...

Comment Of The Day: Right Wing Justification Edition

Sorry for the mess on the initial post. Didn't see the problem until I got on a computer.

11 Facts About the Eric Garner Case the Media Won't Tell You

kmilliorn wanderlust
2 days ago

Just ONCE I'd like to see Sharpton, Obama, Jackson, & Holder take sides & investigate when a NON-MINORITY individual (preferably an unarmed young male) is shot dead by the police without provocation--or even WITH provocation. The Pantheon" of Obama, Sharpton, Jackson,& Holder are trying to convince the world that ONLY MINORITY men suffer from excessive force & killing at the hands of the police.
(Tell that to John Wrana, the 94 year-old WHITE WWII vet who died after being shot FIVE TIMES in the abdomen with bean bags at close range for "menacing" Chicago police with his cane!)

It is an outrage any time anyone of any color is needlessly killed by police.

Corruption Of The Highest Kind

Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General - NYTimes.com:

...The email exchange from October 2011, obtained through an open-records request, offers a hint of the unprecedented, secretive alliance that Mr. Pruitt and other Republican attorneys general have formed with some of the nation’s top energy producers to push back against the Obama regulatory agenda, an investigation by The New York Times has found.

Attorneys general in at least a dozen states are working with energy companies and other corporate interests, which in turn are providing them with record amounts of money for their political campaigns, including at least $16 million this year...

Raygun The Awful

Why Ronald Reagan Should Be Seen as a Complete Failure | Vanity Fair:

The Irony and the Ecstasy

Every serious G.O.P. presidential aspirant invokes the glorious era of Ronald Reagan, to which the country must return. Ignore the fact that, for the likes of Paul Ryan and Rand Paul, Reagan’s actual record—from increased bureaucracy to higher deficits—should be seen as a complete failure...

I've been preaching to choir since the day Ollie North lied under oath.

Murder In UT

Killings by Utah police outpacing gang, drug, child-abuse homicides | The Salt Lake Tribune:

In the past five years, more Utahns have been killed by police than by gang members.

Or drug dealers. Or from child abuse.

And so far this year, deadly force by police has claimed more lives — 13, including a Saturday shooting in South Jordan — than has violence between spouses and dating partners.

As the tally of fatal police shootings rises, law enforcement watchdogs say it is time to treat deadly force as a potentially serious public safety problem...

Comment Of The Day: Blue Wall Edition

Today's Lessons On The Events Of Our Time: The Cleveland Report and The Legal History Of The Chokehold - Esquire

Glenn Hendricks · Top Commenter · University of Denver

I wore a badge for a short while back in the 70s in suburban Denver. It isn't just about race, even then. Race is a huge predictor, true. The casual racism in this department of 200 (with 2 black officers in a town that was 22% black but whose arrests of blacks were 44% of the total arrests) was readily apparent. The other piece that no one seems to get
is that it is nearly as much about not being Blue. The PDs inculcate an 'us against them' attitude about everyone. If you aren't in a PD uniform you aren't squat. Only other officers truly understand what you're going through and only other officers will back you up. This was the reality in 1979 and from what I see it is even worse now. The militarization and isolation of law enforcement really have turned them into a force apart from the society in which they operate.

Evil Apple: Ipod Edition

Apple deleted rivals' musics from iPods, court told - News - Gadgets and Tech - The Independent:

Apple deleted music on users’ iPods that wasn’t bought from iTunes, a court was told during an antitrust suit that says Apple abused the music store’s dominance.

Lawyers representing plaintiffs in the case said that Apple scanned iPods for music that wasn’t bought on iTunes — such as files bought from Amazon's onlike music store — and forced a factory reset, and the third-party files would be removed.

“You guys decided to give them the worst possible experience and blow up” a user’s music library, attorney Patrick Coughlin said in U.S. District Court in Oakland, California, reported the Wall Street Journal...

So that's what happened to my iPod.

Net Neutrality Neutering

Daily Politics Blog - Charles P. Pierce - Political Blogging - Esquire:

...Kid, that's because you didn't apply the Blog's Five Minute Rule where it was clearly appropriate here. In their fundamental political souls, the Pauls are oligarchs. The only kind of "government regulation" they truly oppose, and the only kind for which they truly will go to the mattresses, is any attempt by the government that would prevent the rich from getting richer, or that would protect the rest of us from the political depredations of the corporate class. Everything else is a wink and a nod and a fake. So, somehow, keeping the cable giants from doing for the internet what Goldman Sachs et. al. did for the financial services industry somehow would make you there at your laptop, journaling away at your drone-free Starbucks, less free...

GOPer O'Dissing Continues

When GOP staffer put Obama children ‘at a bar,’ it continued American tradition of trashing black females’ morality - The Washington Post:

In keeping with the Christian theme of her self-serving apology, Elizabeth Lauten has blessedly resigned from her post as the communications director for Rep. Stephen Lee Fincher (R-Tenn.). She had said prayer showed her the error of her ways, though one would think she would not need a higher power to tell her that trashing Malia and Sasha Obama for dress and demeanor at a turkey pardoning was not the best idea...

Irony In The Pulpit

Adulterous Pastor With AIDS Asks Judge for His Job Back - NBC News.com:

The Alabama pastor who confessed that he'd committed adultery with congregants even though he knew he had AIDS argued in court Monday that his church couldn't fire him because he was appointed for life.

Juan Demetrius McFarland, pastor of Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Montgomery and elected moderator of the Alabama Middle District Missionary Baptist Association, was fired in an 80-1 vote of church members. Church deacons went to court in October after McFarland refused to step down...

Ferguson : Sham And Shame

Ferguson message: System unfair to minorities (Opinion) - CNN.com:

...Sure, there are conflicting accounts of what transpired between Wilson and Michael Brown. Was Wilson in fear for his life, as he told investigators, when he and Brown struggled for his gun? Did Brown have his hands up when he was fatally shot? We will never know, because there will be no trial. That's a tragedy for the Brown family and an affront to the fundamental American value that we all are equal under the law.

The grand jury's decision has implications far beyond Ferguson. Gallup polling has found that African-Americans have less confidence in the criminal justice system than white Americans, while a W.W. Kellogg Foundation report found that 68% of Latinos report being worried about police brutality. Wilson walking free will likely reinforce the views among communities of color that our justice system is unfair. And when significant segments of our population lose faith in our justice system, our democracy is weakened.

Grand Jury Tampering

Justice Scalia Explains What Was Wrong With The Ferguson Grand Jury | ThinkProgress:

...In contrast, McCulloch allowed Wilson to testify for hours before the grand jury and presented them with every scrap of exculpatory evidence available. In his press conference, McCulloch said that the grand jury did not indict because eyewitness testimony that established Wilson was acting in self-defense was contradicted by other exculpatory evidence. What McCulloch didn’t say is that he was under no obligation to present such evidence to the grand jury. The only reason one would present such evidence is to reduce the chances that the grand jury would indict Darren Wilson...

The Daily Flashback: '08 Primary Edition

Ditto, Mr. Edsall | The Confluence:

...Well, it’s about time that the pundit class openly admits what those of us on this blog have suspected since the day after Super Tuesday 2008. The party was highjacked during the 2008 primary campaign. That’s why the nature of discourse on Daily Kos changed almost overnight. Almost immediately it felt like the guys from Enron took the place over. And the super delegates started falling like dominos with the rush of money into party coffers. We know retrospectively from Michael Lewis’s book, The Big Short, that there were plenty of people who knew the collapse was coming and wanted to set themselves up before the fall. You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that the bubble was going to burst with very grave consequences for the economy. The traders and bankers put their money on the enabler...

Warren Vs. The Steno Pool

New York Times columnist demands that Elizabeth Warren stop hurting Wall Street’s feelings - Salon.com:

...Moreover, Sorkin writes, “Ms. Warren’s denunciation of Mr. Weiss is a reason many talented people in the private sector are unwilling to take on government roles.” Right — because if anything, our financial regulators include far too many academic experts, community leaders and small bankers, and not nearly enough Wall Street sympathizers. Thankfully, our persecuted plutocrats have Sorkin to defend them against Sen. Warren and her populist pitchforks.

Luv The Guv Senator Sez

Schumer on 2016: 'Democrats must embrace government' - CNN.com:

Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer said Tuesday that in order for his party to win in 2016, his party will have to run on big government, "not run away from it."

During a long, scripted speech at the National Press Club in Washington, the boisterous New Yorker heralded government -- and its programs to aid the middle class -- as what "unites" the party.

"Together, Democrats must embrace government," Schumer said. "In order to win in 2016, Democrats must embrace government, not run away from it..."

Comment Of The Day: Ferguson Verdict

Longislander2

East Coast 2 hours ago

I hope the family files a wrongful death suit so that the facts can be made public.

And while I don't condone the violence, I always find it interesting that public officials never pay much attention to these pockets of poverty and despair until violence erupts. There never seems to be enough money or manpower to help the poor souls who live in places like Ferguson. Yet, as soon as violence might be in the air, the public resources (police, riot vehicles and gear, tear gas, etc.) pouring into the community seem almost unlimited. Local police officials are happy to grab a microphone to decry the looting and burning, but in calmer times, you rarely hear them decry the lack of jobs, better housing, community centers, etc., etc. -- the things that might make life better for all concerned.

You can't blame the people of Ferguson for their anger. The shooting of an unarmed black man goes unpunished, while white bankers and hedge fund criminals -- who have created much more destruction than Michael Brown ever could -- also go free. And once the violence dies down, the media satellite trucks will disappear and the residents will still be left with their hopelessness.

Before you condemn the people of Ferguson for their actions, walk a mile in their shoes.

Will Good Sense Prevail This Time?

Police killing of boy revives calls for replica gun rules thwarted by NRA | Al Jazeera America:

The fatal police shooting of a 12-year-old boy reportedly while he reached for an airsoft gun in a Cleveland playground has led to renewed calls for replica and air rifles to be clearly identifiable as such — a move doggedly resisted by the National Rifle Association (NRA), who have helped scuttled such moves in the past.

An Ohio state representative announced on Sunday she would propose legislation that would require all BB guns, air rifles and airsoft guns to be brightly colored or have prominent fluorescent strips...

Remember this one?

Trend Scoping The South

Usually, political articles about the South are little more than hit pieces that boost the writer's obvious superiority over anything Southern. This one is not one of those.

8 disturbing trends that reveal the South’s battered psyche - Salon.com:

Across red-state America, especially in the Deep South, recent statistics—such as these Huffington Post graphics—show that the cycle of poverty, in its many manifestations, is unchanged and holding firm. Why is this?...

More Benghazi Reports

Media Lessons From The Benghazi Charade | Blog | Media Matters for America:

The calling cards of anger and denial have been on display since Friday afternoon when the House Intelligence Committee, led by Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, released the findings of its two-year investigation into the 2012 terror attack in Benghazi. Becoming the sixth government inquiry to come to a similar conclusion, the report found nothing to support the allegations behind Fox News' ongoing Benghazi witch-hunt. And that's where the anger and denial came in...

Racism In NV

Nevada Speaker-Elect Ira Hansen Steps Down After Racist And Sexist Writings Emerge:

...Hansen has had a column in The Sparks Tribune, a local Nevada newspaper, for 13 years. The Reno News and Review recently examined all of his columns -- many of which were not online -- and published a number of excerpts from his writings last week.

"The lack of gratitude and the deliberate ignoring of white history in relation to eliminating slavery is a disgrace that Negro leaders should own up to," Hansen wrote in one column...

Nasty In The Sorta South

Kentucky fire chief refuses to help black family after traffic accident: “We ain’t taking no n–gers here” - Salon.com:

A Kentucky law enforcement official is under fire this week after footage of his deeply racist comments was made public on Tuesday. In September, Southeast Bullitt Fire Chief Julius Hatfield was recorded on a Bullitt County Sheriff deputy’s body camera during a response to a traffic accident, when Hatfield allegedly refused to help a black family while referring to them in derogatory, racist terms...

GOP Will Help Dems Turn Out The Vote

Republicans Hand Obama an Immigration Triumph -- NYMag:

...Substantively, Obama’s executive order gives him less than he hoped to gain with a bipartisan law. But politically, he has ceded no advantage. Indeed, he has gained one. Not only does immigration remain a live issue, it is livelier than ever. The GOP primary will remorselessly drive its candidates rightward and force them to promise to overturn Obama’s reform, and thus to immediately threaten with deportation some 5 million people — none of whom can vote, but nearly all of whom have friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors who can...

Not In The South, NY That Is

Four white NY teens suspended for racist taunting of black class president:

Four white students were suspended this week for racially motivated online harassment of the newly elected senior class president at their school...

O'Tool Of Wall Street

Elizabeth Warren slams President Obama justifiably:

Elizabeth Warren is justifiably upset. One of America’s last bastions of true liberalism and progressivism is slamming the President for his nomination of another Wall Street bull. Last Wednesday President Obama nominated Antonio Weiss to serve as Under Secretary for Domestic Finance at the Treasury Department.

Antonio Weiss is the head of the investment banking firm Lazard. And what does Lazard do? They do what most investment banking firms do. They maximize capital investment returns irrespective of cost to country or humanity...

Great Foreign Policy Advice

Did Dubai Do It? - NYTimes.com:

...But never forget: We can only amplify what they do. When change starts or depends on our staying power, it is not self-sustaining — the most important value in international relations. When it starts with them, it can be self-sustaining. The best example of that is the U.A.E. and its crown jewel, Dubai. I had several conversations here on this question: Did Dubai cause the Arab awakening?...

Don't Put The GOP In The White House

Bernie Sanders Won't Save You | Crooks and Liars:

One of my frustrations with Ralph Nader was his absolute refusal to do anything about party building between presidential elections. He shows up as a spoiler vote every four years, but isn't really interested in the work required to make a structural change. Sadly, I see parallels with my fellow liberals and the Nader campaign. Effecting change takes a lot of work, and it takes constant work, even in off-election/midterm years. You can't pin your hope on some magical progressive pony like Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders and think that suddenly everything will be rosy and liberal...

Worthless People

GOP lawmaker: Government employees “produce nothing” - Salon.com:

In the wake of dismal revenue figures indicating that Kansas will need to come up with $279 million in savings by June, the Republican speaker of the state House of Representatives is calling for drastic cuts to government services rather than increased taxation, asserting that government public employees “produce nothing.”

“Government employees produce nothing. They’re a net consumer,” Ray Merrick told the Wichita Eagle late last week. “That is employment to Democrats. Hire more [government employees]. And that was Kathleen [Sebelius, the state's governor from 2003 to 2009]; she’d brag about her employment number, ‘Oh, I got a lot of people employed.’ Yeah, you got a lot more government employees employed. That doesn’t stimulate the economy,” he added.

It’s certainly news to economists that a dollar spent by a public school teacher or firefighter doesn’t count the same as a dollar spent by a private sector office worker — just as it’s news that educating young minds and protecting public safety amounts to “nothing...”

Dems Should Run On Something That Works

Democrats can’t win white working class voters: The party is too closely identified with blacks, Latinos, and other minorities.:

...The conclusion is straightforward. Democrats don’t have to worry about alienating these voters with their cosmopolitanism. If they can just embrace a populist, forward thinking agenda—in which they tackle stagnation and explicitly attack the wealthy engineers of extreme income inequality—they can win these younger whites who are comfortable with diversity and want a more level society. As Noam Scheiber writes for the New Republic, commenting on Teixeira and Halpin’s piece, “The politics of this approach work not just because populism is a ‘message’ that a majority of voters want to hear. But because, unlike the status quo, it can actually improve their economic prospects...”

The World Of The Cons

Ferguson Protests And Fox News' Contempt For Free Speech | Blog | Media Matters for America:

 ...Conservative commentators have a long history of condemning, as vile and un-American, citizens who protest on behalf of their causes, whether it's racial injustice, income equality, collective bargaining rights, raising the minimum wage, or defending public education. The spotlight on Ferguson and its supposed "lynch mob" represents just the latest example of those sweeping condemnations and attacks on civil discourse.

Keep in mind that it was Fox News, as well as the rest of the right-wing media, that championed lawless insurrectionists earlier this year in Nevada when gun-toting militia members rallied to the side of rancher Cliven Bundy, who refused for more than two decades to pay grazing fees for his cattle that fed off federal land. (Bundy's Fox-sponsored crusade imploded when he was recorded making racist comments, asking if black Americans were "better off as slaves.")

In the Fox worldview, activists are thugs and thugs are freedom fighters...

Wealth Little Help In Politics

'Billionaires' Book Review: Money Can't Buy Happiness | New Republic:

...Billionaires seems to have been sparked by West’s belief that rich people, newly empowered to use their money in politics, are now more likely than usual to determine political outcomes. This may be true, but so far the evidence—and evidence here is really just a handful of anecdotes—suggests that rich people, when they seek to influence political outcomes, often are wasting their money. Michael Bloomberg was able to use his billions to make himself mayor of New York City (which seems to have worked out pretty well for New York City), but Meg Whitman piled $144 million of her own money in the streets of California and set it on fire in her failed attempt to become governor. Mitt Romney might actually have been a stronger candidate if he had less money, or at least had been less completely defined by his money. For all the angst caused by the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson and their efforts to unseat Barack Obama, they only demonstrated how much money could be spent on a political campaign while exerting no meaningful effect upon it...

Obvious Politics

Addicting Info – The REAL Reason The GOP Keeps Winning: Lies, Fraud, Vote-Rigging, And Treason (VIDEO):

As the Democrats’ stunning midterm losses prompt much soul-searching and finger-pointing, we ignore the real reasons the GOP keeps winning: Lies, fraud, vote-rigging, and treason...

Clinton Moving Up

Hillary’s Wonderful Week - Matt Latimer - POLITICO Magazine:

...Yes, these are good days for the Hillary Clinton proto-campaign. Her first good days in a long while, in fact. No longer will she have to worry so much about gaining distance from President Obama—though that’s certainly on her agenda. No longer will she have to defend or explain her position on issues pushed by a Democratic Senate. No longer will she have to subtly run against her husband and his scandals. Instead, she can run squarely against the circus that will preoccupy Congress and the media with every passing day. The calm voice of wearied experience. The wizened wife and mother—now grandmother—who can keep those rambunctious boys in line.

She’s probably just about the only person in Washington today who’s even happier than Mitch McConnell.

Pure Politics

Democrats Deny Pregnant Congresswoman a Proxy Vote in Caucus Leadership - NationalJournal.com:

 Rep. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, who is expecting a baby in December, is being denied a request to vote by proxy in the House Democratic Caucus leadership and committee member elections next week—even though her doctor advises she can't travel to Washington in the late stages of her pregnancy.

The Iraq War veteran, who lost both legs when her helicopter was shot down in 2004, made the request in a letter to fellow Democrats. Her letter was read during a closed-door Democratic Caucus meeting on Thursday. But objections were raised, and the request was denied, with opponents including Democratic Steering and Police Committee cochair Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi...

Flogging Clean Coal

Clean Coal - Esquire:

...There is no such thing as clean coal. There is no clean way to burn it. There is no clean way to mine it. And there is no clean way to profit from it as long as the business of coal mining -- and the lives of the people who work in the business -- are in the grasping, sweaty, unregulated hands of the likes of Don Blankenship, who would kill 100 people rather than spend a nickel keeping one worker alive. The man has proven a blight upon the land, a blight upon the public discourse, a blight upon our politics, and a blight upon common decency.

Blankenship pressured Upper Big Branch management to violate safety standards in favor of maximizing production and profits, the indictment alleges. One mine manager received a handwritten note from Blankenship in March 2009 "chastising him" for "insufficient attention to cost-cutting," telling the manager, "You have a kid to feed. Do your job," the indictment alleged. That same mine manager at Upper Big Branch was told, when he wasn't producing as much coal as Blankenship demanded, "I could Khrushchev you. Do you understand?"

He has not spent a dime in the past 20 years that was not blood money, and now the Feds have run him to ground, and it will be very interesting to see how many of the politicians he had in his pocket will stand by him. (Watch the new Congress try to defund this lawsuit. Call me Kreskin.) Senator Joe Manchin (D-Anthracite) has pronounced himself not in favor of coal barons who kill people, a bold stand that will cost him nothing...

461 Killed By Police Last Year

No Justice, No Peace: FBI Report Highlights Highest Rate Of Murders By Police In 20 Years | If You Only News:

...Last year, the number of reported felonious suspects killed by police officers tallied 461, according to a recent FBI report. That’s the highest it’s been in twenty years. One has to wonder what the number would be if it included those not reported, shootings involving non-felonious suspects, as well as innocent members of the community unfortunate enough to find themselves in the crosshairs of Johnny Law. That’s right, 461 police murders – the highest in two decades — is actually the far low end of an unknown, undefined spectrum...

Veterans Rant

Read This Scathing Message To Republicans From A Combat Veteran | If You Only News:

...They certainly will not forget Republicans who stopped everything to tilt the outrage-meter when the VA was making our valiant soldiers wait over a year for a doctor appointment, THEN filibustered new spending to help alleviate the problem while our soldiers died of easily treatable maladies!...

Defending Clinton's Age

Neil Cavuto Compares Rand Paul To Chris Christie Over His Swipe At Hillary's Age | Crooks and Liars:

Neil Cavuto went after Rand Paul for making swipes at Hillary Clinton's age -- probably because after all, he was attacking Fox News' core demographic! Still, a rare moment of sanity:..

Remembering The Truth

Absolutely Nothing: A Veteran’s Savage Indictment of the Iraq War | Americans Against the Tea Party:

 ...They had no idea what we were fighting for, those saber-rattling Chicken Hawks, the cowardly connected wealthy weasels who’d managed to avoid serving in their own war, who kept their children out of uniform, but just couldn’t wait to send us into one of their own making. They sent us off with parades and marching bands and cheering crowds … and brought the bodies home in secret, hidden away from the TV cameras and the public...

I'm getting that old 'Nam feeling.

Cruz Lies On Net Neutrality

Ted Cruz's Net Neutrality Take Isn't Just Dumb, It's Dangerous:

Ted Cruz and his team have the facts wrong about net neutrality. Obama specifically said the government would NOT be in charge of pricing: "I believe the FCC should reclassify consumer broadband service under Title II of the Telecommunications Act — while at the same time forbearing from rate regulation and other provisions less relevant to broadband services."

Emphasis mine. Government will not rate regulate and saying so is lying (or maybe they didn't actually read the statement?).

Cruz is one of the most powerful people in Congress, and he's considering a presidential run in 2016. He's on the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, which handles internet governance and FCC oversight. This is a man people give their attention, which makes this statement dangerous as well as disingenuous...

O Net Neutral

Obama calls for broadband to be regulated as a utility - FierceCIO

President Obama called this week for broadband, including mobile, to be regulated as a utility. In short, he wants to put a can on blocking, throttling and paid prioritization of transit. The President acknowledged that the "FCC is an independent agency, and ultimately this decision is theirs alone," but he strongly advocated for the agency to protect net neutrality...

Sounds like that would have made a nice election issue.

Arrested For Voting

I Was Arrested for Voting | American Civil Liberties Union

...Two months after I cast my ballot as a civics lesson for my daughter, the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation agents parked across the street from my house, questioned me, and eventually arrested me and charged me with voter fraud...

Whining Catholic Cons

The demotion of a conservative church oiffical has gotten certain conservative Catholic panties in a wad.

Pope Francis Gives Raymond Burke The Boot - Esquire

...Throughout the sexual-abuse crisis brought on by the vast corruption within the institutional church, it was the very people whom Douthat celebrates here who tried to bury the scandal, to distance the church from its own crimes. It was they who celebrated the insufferable Bernard Cardinal Law in Boston when he tried to pin the whole thing on the media. It was they who gave themselves over to fanciful conspiracy theories involving liberals and (that old standby) the Jews. It wasn't the people Douthat mentioned who stood up to Law in Boston. It was a handful of brave priests like my friend, Walter Cuenin, many of whom were punished for it. It was the conservative, institutional church within which these crimes were committed, and it was within the conservative, institutional church within which the cover-up was engaged, and within which it continues to this day. To make those people somehow the victims in this context is very close to obscene...

Don't Let Facts Derail The Propaganda

Bush's catapult broke before it could even be triggered.

Breitbart's Attack On Obama Attorney General Nominee Goes After The Wrong Loretta Lynch | Blog | Media Matters for America

Members of the conservative media are attempting to scandalize President Obama's Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch by suggesting she was involved in the Whitewater investigations of the 1990s. However, the Loretta Lynch that played a bit role in Whitewater -- an investigation into fraudulent real estate deals that did not include any wrongdoing by the Clintons -- is a different person than Obama's attorney general nominee.
According to a November 8 Breitbart.com article by Warner Todd Huston, "few are talking about" the fact nominee Lynch "was part of Bill Clinton's Whitewater probe defense team in 1992." Huston pointed to a March 1992 New York Times article that "reported that Lynch was one of the Clintons' Whitewater defense attorneys as well as a 'campaign aide.'" And in a November 9 article Huston's colleague, Breitbart.com Senior Editor-at Large Joel Pollak wrote, "The connection to Whitewater ought to provide additional fodder for Republicans during Lynch's confirmation hearings":..

Rightness and Wrongness

Triumph of the Wrong - NYTimes.com

...Then there’s health reform, where Republicans were very clear about what was supposed to happen: minimal enrollments, more people losing insurance than gaining it, soaring costs. Reality, so far, has begged to differ, delivering above-predicted sign-ups, a sharp drop in the number of Americans without health insurance, premiums well below expectations, and a sharp slowdown in overall health spending...

On Chucktoddery

Chuck Todd's Obama book says more about the author than it does about the president : Columbia Journalism Review

...Then there are the numerous instances of GOP implacability. Todd reminds us that when Obama praised Republican Marco Rubio’s tax-credit proposal, Rubio had to go on talk radio the next day to appease Republican foot soldiers riled up by the president’s seal of approval; that Obama once invited GOP-ers to a White House screening of Spielberg’s Lincoln, and no one showed up; that even after furious courting by the president, not a single Republican voted for a healthcare reform bill modeled after a Republican governor’s plan.
But far too often, Todd falls back on lazy, a-pox-on-both-houses thinking. He lambasts the GOP for its obduracy but upbraids Obama for not trying harder to win Republicans over anyway—this despite Todd’s own observation that Republicans had “perfected” the strategy of total obstruction, and that Republicans had come to see opposing Obama as a simple matter of “self-interest...”

About Those Bank Criminals

The $9 Billion Witness: Meet JPMorgan Chase's Worst Nightmare | Rolling Stone

...Fleischmann is the central witness in one of the biggest cases of white-collar crime in American history, possessing secrets that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon late last year paid $9 billion (not $13 billion as regularly reported – more on that later) to keep the public from hearing.
Back in 2006, as a deal manager at the gigantic bank, Fleischmann first witnessed, then tried to stop, what she describes as "massive criminal securities fraud" in the bank's mortgage operations...

O Was And Is The Problem

“Clueless, lifeless zombies”: Why Chris Hayes is right about Democrats, principles, and fighting back - Salon.com

...I think they’re all wrong. Obama left the Democrats in Congress long before they left him. They know their districts and states better than any pundits do and only bailed on Obama when voters started bailing on them, by which time it was too late. Their real mistake was failing to speak up years ago when Obama abandoned many of their party’s principles, or even to realize he’d done it...

The problem really goes back to his nomination. How can you expect liberal behavior from a candidate who was conservative enough to use GOP tactics to steal the nomination from Hillary Clinton? The Pumas told you so but you dismissed them as "bitter knitters." Don't whine, liberals, when you were so easily fooled years ago.

Talking To The Choir

5 Things The Democratic Party Must Change To Win Elections Again

...Stop the elitism: As a white male who lives in the South and owns guns, I don’t feel like I belong to that party and haven’t been registered with them in 4 years. More and more it feels like unless you’re a New York or California true blue, ideologically pure liberal, you’re really not welcome. That’s an especially big turn off to white, blue-collar voters who may not like Republican policies, but feel like Democrats look down on them as poor and uneducated rednecks who need to have their guns taken away. Stop talking about how horrible Republicans are all the time and start telling them what you can do to make their lives better instead of just saying that you’re better than the Republicans, and really little else...

I've tried making this point on various "liberal" blogs for the past eight years, and I have been mostly met with the worst kind of geographic bigotry. It's bad enough when people refer to you as a redneck, hillbilly, etc. And, of course, any criticism of the Great O instantly brings out the race card, without a hint of irony to players that are dealing exactly what they're accusing you of doing. The silliest thing,but something that really irks most Southerners, is the moronic rejoinder that "we whipped your ass in the Civil War" as the one statement that wins every argument. As I told one fellow 15 years ago, "We'll never forget the Civil War because you will never let us forget it."

btw-- read the entire article; it has a lot of good advice for Democrats.

Medicare Is Doomed

Mitch McConnell opens his kimono | The Confluence

...Republicans hate Social Security and Medicare with a white hot passion. Medicare was passed during the Johnson administration only by overwhelmingly voting in Democrats to Congress so as to reduce Republican opposition to insignificance. Social Security was also passed over their dead bodies back during the Depression. Now that they are in charge, and we have an weaker president than even I ever thought possible in the White House, Republicans are going to do all they can to make sure they stamp both programs out or cripple them so badly that they may become worthless. You may indeed be the last generation that benefits from all your hard work. But it is my generation, who paid *extra* taxes into the surplus fund so that we could retire, and have almost no other pension benefits, that will feel the most severe pain. Because Republicans are going to cut a deal with you to screw us over and we are going to watch as you hastily pull the ladder up in order to save your own skins.

Loving The Death Funnel

House Speaker John Boehner said approval of the controversial Keystone XL oil…

 

House Speaker John Boehner said approval of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline and the repeal of key parts of Obamacare are among Republicans' top priorities now that the GOP has won control of both houses of Congress.
"Obamacare is hurting our economy, it's hurting middle-class workers, and it's hurting the ability to create more jobs," Boehner said, adding that Republicans want to replace it with "common-sense reforms."

What Liberals Should Focus On

Simply Left BehindThe Non-Rapturist's Guide To The Galaxy: Two Years' Vacation:

...This is something liberals need to focus on: not the GOTV every two years or so, but a long term commitment to persuading people that its in their best interest to vote early and vote often, at least in the course of their lifetimes.

See, we win when they vote. It's as simple as that.

Clinton Wins?

Why the Senate GOP takeover might actually help Hillary Clinton - The Washington Post:

A Republican Senate is likely to “spend a lot of time trying to repeal some of the progress made in the Obama administration,” Democratic strategist Erik Smith said. “That would be a great situation for her, because she could both make the case against the Republicans while currying favor with the Obama base...”

The Stop Obama Movement

Negativity Wins the Senate - NYTimes.com:

Republicans would like the country to believe that they took control of the Senate on Tuesday by advocating a strong, appealing agenda of job creation, tax reform and spending cuts. But, in reality, they did nothing of the sort.

Even the voters who supported Republican candidates would have a hard time explaining what their choices are going to do. That’s because virtually every Republican candidate campaigned on only one thing: what they called the failure of President Obama. In speech after speech, ad after ad, they relentlessly linked their Democratic opponent to the president and vowed that they would put an end to everything they say the public hates about his administration. On Tuesday morning, the Republican National Committee released a series of get-out-the-vote images showing Mr. Obama and Democratic Senate candidates next to this message: “If you’re not a voter, you can’t stop Obama...”

Wage Theft

The sneaky, systematic ways employers are stealing our wages - Salon.com:

...Next come the fast-food workers who work overtime, but rarely see the time-and-a-half to which they are entitled by law. Franchise managers at McDonald, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Wendy’s and the like steal those hours by fiddling with the logs. You don’t like it? Leave. But if you’re lucky enough to be part of the Fast Food Forward campaign, the threat of protest and legal action might force the employer to pay up. Try stealing OT in Denmark and the union would shut down the entire chain.

Move up the food chain a bit and you’ll find the Amazon worker who must line up for 25 minutes to pass through “egress security”—screeners to stop pilfering. Amazon says this is not “integral and indispensible” to the job, and therefore, it is lawful not to pay for the time. The Supreme Court will soon decide whether efforts to halt merchandise theft will become legalized wage theft...

Incompetence In Campaigning

How the Lame Democrats Blew It - The Daily Beast:

...While there is a lot of truth to the notion that midterm voter turnout is a challenging for a liberal coalition comprised of the country’s most “unlikely” voters, the real story is this. Candidates from Arkansas to Kentucky, from Iowa to Georgia, lacked message discipline and skipped one opportunity after another to effectively target voters with any notable precision. For all of the bellyaching, tooth gnashing, and public wailing, Democrats have no one to blame but themselves. Their collective failings come down to message discipline, candidate selection, and voter targeting...

Crazy In NC: Moral Monday Edition

Republicans Tried to Suppress the Black Vote in North Carolina. It's Not Working. | Mother Jones:

...These bills and others Tillis and fellow Republicans forced through after they took control of both the legislature and the governorship in 2012 led the NAACP's Rev. William Barber to launch the Moral Mondays movement in April 2013. For 74 straight weeks now, protesters have held demonstrations near the state capitol demanding a retreat from the state's sharp right turn...

The Cross Check Suppression Gambit

Jim Crow returns | Al Jazeera America:

Election officials in 27 states, most of them Republicans, have launched a program that threatens a massive purge of voters from the rolls. Millions, especially black, Hispanic and Asian-American voters, are at risk. Already, tens of thousands have been removed in at least one battleground state, and the numbers are expected to climb, according to a six-month-long, nationwide investigation by Al Jazeera America.

At the heart of this voter-roll scrub is the Interstate Crosscheck program, which has generated a master list of nearly 7 million names. Officials say that these names represent legions of fraudsters who are not only registered but have actually voted in two or more states in the same election — a felony punishable by 2 to 10 years in prison.,,

Fear And The Media

How The Media Helped The GOP Sell Their Fear-Based Appeal | Blog | Media Matters for America:

..."If you look at every single major issue in this campaign, the American public agree with our position," Biden said, "from federal support for infrastructure to minimum wage to marriage equality."

Biden is right, and the numbers are staggering. Seventy percent of Americans support increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, according to the results of a CBS News/New York Times poll from September. When Gallup asked whether voters would be more likely to support candidates who want to spend federal government money on infrastructure repairs, 72 percent said they would. Polling from ABCNews/Washington Post, The New York Times/CBS News, and McClatchy-Marist all shows majority support for marriage equality. Add universal background checks and federal action to combat climate change to the growing list of progressive issues backed by large majorities of the electorate...

Crazy In NC:Aiken Edition

Clay Aiken Doesn't Sing Anymore - Esquire:

...Aiken takes a deep breath. "The reason I'm running is because I want everybody to have the same shot. To start on the same line, not ten steps behind. This is a race we plan on winning. We are fighting with everything we have..."

The Heart Of Tenure

What Conservative Media Miss In Coverage Of Controversial Time Teacher Story | Blog | Media Matters for America:

...Education Opportunity Network Director Jeff Bryant also argued in Salon that rights like tenure and due process are important for "the really huge problem many schools have with teacher retention." Bryant cited a New York Daily News op-ed by the dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Law, Erwin Chemerinsky, in which Chemerinsky wrote, "Getting rid of tenure and due process will not encourage more teachers to stay in the profession. It will drive them out and discourage other qualified people from entering the profession in the first place."

Perhaps we could have a more substantive conversation about teaching, tenure, and due process if conservative media were at least willing to discuss what's at the heart of this controversy.

The issue for the conservatives is really their attraction to the plantation model in all aspects of human interaction. They love the king, the authority-- as long as they're one in charge or they can imagine being The Man. They don't like the freedom that due process in employment (tenure) represents.