GOP Takes Big Lead in Generic House Poll - Political Hotsheet - CBS News: "A set of new polls suggests Republicans are in a position to make significant gains in this November's midterm elections.
A Gallup poll released yesterday showed that voters would choose an unnamed Republican over an unnamed Democrat by 51 percent to 41 percent. The 10-point margin is the largest lead Republicans have held in Gallup's generic ballot since Gallup began surveying voters on the question in 1942..."
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Language And Perception
Fascinating article. Check it out here-- Does Your Language Shape How You Think? - NYTimes.com: "...Of course, all this does not mean that speakers of Spanish or French or German fail to understand that inanimate objects do not really have biological sex — a German woman rarely mistakes her husband for a hat, and Spanish men are not known to confuse a bed with what might be lying in it. Nonetheless, once gender connotations have been imposed on impressionable young minds, they lead those with a gendered mother tongue to see the inanimate world through lenses tinted with associations and emotional responses that English speakers — stuck in their monochrome desert of “its” — are entirely oblivious to. Did the opposite genders of “bridge” in German and Spanish, for example, have an effect on the design of bridges in Spain and Germany? Do the emotional maps imposed by a gender system have higher-level behavioral consequences for our everyday life? Do they shape tastes, fashions, habits and preferences in the societies concerned? At the current state of our knowledge about the brain, this is not something that can be easily measured in a psychology lab. But it would be surprising if they didn’t..."
Monday, August 30, 2010
O Flogs GOP
Obama rips GOP for blocking business aid bill - CNN.com: "President Barack Obama blasted Senate Republicans on Monday for blocking a small business assistance bill, calling their opposition 'pure partisan politics...'"
The Nice Bigot Syndrome
Even when they try to be nice, the bigotry appears in the headline. Don't use the "H word" then tell us how wonderful we are on the one hand, then with your next breath tell us we wouldn't be that way without divine inspiration from flatlanders. Chicago, home of the infamous Camp Douglas and Obama, has no place to condescend from. Keep it up and you'll be hearing banjo music. Old South: Asheville is not what you'd call Old South - chicagotribune.com:
Saturday, August 28, 2010
More Beckery
What do I think about Glenn Beck? | Coffee Party:
"...The game that Mr. Beck plays is so obvious, isn't it? He prances and dances around the line of what is responsible, what is inappropriate, and, yes, even what may be 'racist.' His hope is that the entire nation will notice, that some will condemn him, and others will defend him. If so, he becomes the center of attention, his ratings go up, and his devout followers are thrilled to have another reason to be angry at the rest of the country. I don't see any winners in this game other than Mr. Beck and his corporate sponsors.
If you have the energy for active citizenship in this crucial period in American history, consider volunteering for a non-partisan organization that is trying to help fellow Americans cope with tough economic times, and/or trying to unite our country rather than divide it."
"...The game that Mr. Beck plays is so obvious, isn't it? He prances and dances around the line of what is responsible, what is inappropriate, and, yes, even what may be 'racist.' His hope is that the entire nation will notice, that some will condemn him, and others will defend him. If so, he becomes the center of attention, his ratings go up, and his devout followers are thrilled to have another reason to be angry at the rest of the country. I don't see any winners in this game other than Mr. Beck and his corporate sponsors.
If you have the energy for active citizenship in this crucial period in American history, consider volunteering for a non-partisan organization that is trying to help fellow Americans cope with tough economic times, and/or trying to unite our country rather than divide it."
The Roots Of The Money Tree
The billionaire Koch brothers’ war against Obama : The New Yorker:
"...One dignitary was conspicuously absent from the gala: the event’s third honorary co-chair, Michelle Obama. Her office said that a scheduling conflict had prevented her from attending. Yet had the First Lady shared the stage with Koch it might have created an awkward tableau. In Washington, Koch is best known as part of a family that has repeatedly funded stealth attacks on the federal government, and on the Obama Administration in particular.
With his brother Charles, who is seventy-four, David Koch owns virtually all of Koch Industries, a conglomerate, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, whose annual revenues are estimated to be a hundred billion dollars. The company has grown spectacularly since their father, Fred, died, in 1967, and the brothers took charge. The Kochs operate oil refineries in Alaska, Texas, and Minnesota, and control some four thousand miles of pipeline. Koch Industries owns Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups, Georgia-Pacific lumber, Stainmaster carpet, and Lycra, among other products. Forbes ranks it as the second-largest private company in the country, after Cargill, and its consistent profitability has made David and Charles Koch—who, years ago, bought out two other brothers—among the richest men in America. Their combined fortune of thirty-five billion dollars is exceeded only by those of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett..."
"...One dignitary was conspicuously absent from the gala: the event’s third honorary co-chair, Michelle Obama. Her office said that a scheduling conflict had prevented her from attending. Yet had the First Lady shared the stage with Koch it might have created an awkward tableau. In Washington, Koch is best known as part of a family that has repeatedly funded stealth attacks on the federal government, and on the Obama Administration in particular.
With his brother Charles, who is seventy-four, David Koch owns virtually all of Koch Industries, a conglomerate, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, whose annual revenues are estimated to be a hundred billion dollars. The company has grown spectacularly since their father, Fred, died, in 1967, and the brothers took charge. The Kochs operate oil refineries in Alaska, Texas, and Minnesota, and control some four thousand miles of pipeline. Koch Industries owns Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups, Georgia-Pacific lumber, Stainmaster carpet, and Lycra, among other products. Forbes ranks it as the second-largest private company in the country, after Cargill, and its consistent profitability has made David and Charles Koch—who, years ago, bought out two other brothers—among the richest men in America. Their combined fortune of thirty-five billion dollars is exceeded only by those of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett..."
Rally Beck
Glenn Beck says Washington rally's purpose is to help lead America out of the darkness: "
"Glenn Beck may be losing he eyesight, but he says he wants to lead America out of the "darkness."
The fiery conservative Fox talk show host addressed his followers Friday night at the Kennedy Center on the eve of his rally at the Lincoln Memorial, which falls on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream speech."
Despite criticism, Beck maintains the event is not political, though former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is scheduled to speak..."
Friday, August 27, 2010
The GOP Deficit
Estimates Say Fewer Jobs, Larger Deficits if Republicans Were in Charge - Newsweek: "..The final piece of the puzzle is the Bush tax cuts. Obama wants to extend them for the 95 percent of taxpayers making less than $250,000 a year; Republicans want to extend them for everybody. How will these extensions affect the deficit? Glad you asked. According to data compiled by The Washington Post, 'the Democratic proposal would add about $3 trillion to the deficit during the next decade, while the GOP plan would cost $3.7 trillion.' That brings the total Obama deficit to $3.784 trillion over 10 years, and its GOP counterpart to—drumroll, please—$4.155 trillion."
Terminating Unions
Arnold Schwarzenegger: Public Pensions and Our Fiscal Future - WSJ.com:
"...Reforming government employee compensation and benefits won't close this year's deficit. It will, however, protect the next generation of Californians from overwhelming burdens. The same is true with respect to the other reform I'm demanding—the establishment of a rainy-day fund so that legislators can't spend temporary revenue windfalls.
All of these reforms must be in place before I will sign a budget.
I am under no illusion about the difficulty of my task. Government-employee unions are the most powerful political forces in our state and largely control Democratic legislators. But for the future of our state, no task is more important..."
"...Reforming government employee compensation and benefits won't close this year's deficit. It will, however, protect the next generation of Californians from overwhelming burdens. The same is true with respect to the other reform I'm demanding—the establishment of a rainy-day fund so that legislators can't spend temporary revenue windfalls.
All of these reforms must be in place before I will sign a budget.
I am under no illusion about the difficulty of my task. Government-employee unions are the most powerful political forces in our state and largely control Democratic legislators. But for the future of our state, no task is more important..."
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Illegals Murdered
Mexico Killings Show Migrants' Plight - WSJ.com:
"This week's massacre of 72 Central and South American migrants in Mexico highlights a paradox the government here doesn't like to talk about: While it complains about the treatment of its own undocumented workers in the U.S., Mexico can be a far worse place to be an illegal migrant.
Mexican soldiers on Thursday fanned out near a remote ranch about 90 miles from the U.S. border where 58 men and 14 women from Honduras, El Salvador, Ecuador and Brazil were bound, blindfolded, lined up against a wall and executed..."
"This week's massacre of 72 Central and South American migrants in Mexico highlights a paradox the government here doesn't like to talk about: While it complains about the treatment of its own undocumented workers in the U.S., Mexico can be a far worse place to be an illegal migrant.
Mexican soldiers on Thursday fanned out near a remote ranch about 90 miles from the U.S. border where 58 men and 14 women from Honduras, El Salvador, Ecuador and Brazil were bound, blindfolded, lined up against a wall and executed..."
About That Community Center
A Personal Rant on the Mosque “Controversy”: A Prequel to the Thursday News « The Confluence:
"...For any lurkers out there who are shaking their heads right now: arguing that a mosque should not be built or should be moved to a “more sensitive” location *is* quite simply xenophobia and Islamophobia. That is the kind of thinking that led to the interment of Japanese-Americans during WWII and the McCarthy era antic-communist hysteria and the ensuing blacklisting of thousands of American citizen. Our system was set up to protect minority groups from this kind of hatred and the actions that might follow from it.
Any objections to building a mosque in Manhattan should have been filed with the government of New York City back in 2009 when the project was publicly studied and then approved. This phony controversy that has been ginned up by Pamela Geller and Fox News is disgusting, in my opinion. I know the other TC writers agree with me on this. We have been extremely discouraged by some of the comments we have seen here at TC. At the same, we are proud of and grateful to our regular commenters who have helped to beat down the surge of xenophobic trolls.
Even Thomas Friedman, Mike Barnicle, and Joe Scarborough agree! This topic has been covered heavily on Morning Joe this week, and I’ve seen a few of these discussions. I totally agree with Scarborough statement (paraphrasing) that *we won’t interfere with your ability to build a mosque in New York City if you won’t interfere with our ability to build a Baptist church in Florida..."
"...For any lurkers out there who are shaking their heads right now: arguing that a mosque should not be built or should be moved to a “more sensitive” location *is* quite simply xenophobia and Islamophobia. That is the kind of thinking that led to the interment of Japanese-Americans during WWII and the McCarthy era antic-communist hysteria and the ensuing blacklisting of thousands of American citizen. Our system was set up to protect minority groups from this kind of hatred and the actions that might follow from it.
Any objections to building a mosque in Manhattan should have been filed with the government of New York City back in 2009 when the project was publicly studied and then approved. This phony controversy that has been ginned up by Pamela Geller and Fox News is disgusting, in my opinion. I know the other TC writers agree with me on this. We have been extremely discouraged by some of the comments we have seen here at TC. At the same, we are proud of and grateful to our regular commenters who have helped to beat down the surge of xenophobic trolls.
Even Thomas Friedman, Mike Barnicle, and Joe Scarborough agree! This topic has been covered heavily on Morning Joe this week, and I’ve seen a few of these discussions. I totally agree with Scarborough statement (paraphrasing) that *we won’t interfere with your ability to build a mosque in New York City if you won’t interfere with our ability to build a Baptist church in Florida..."
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Flabby Thinking
Op-Ed Columnist - A Case of Mental Courage - NYTimes.com:
"...There’s a seller’s market in ideologies that gives people a chance to feel victimized. There’s a rigidity to political debate. Issues like tax cuts and the size of government, which should be shaped by circumstances (often it’s good to cut taxes; sometimes it’s necessary to raise them), are now treated as inflexible tests of tribal purity.
To use a fancy word, there’s a metacognition deficit. Very few in public life habitually step back and think about the weakness in their own thinking and what they should do to compensate. A few people I interview do this regularly (in fact, Larry Summers is one). But it is rare. The rigors of combat discourage it.
Of the problems that afflict the country, this is the underlying one..."
"...There’s a seller’s market in ideologies that gives people a chance to feel victimized. There’s a rigidity to political debate. Issues like tax cuts and the size of government, which should be shaped by circumstances (often it’s good to cut taxes; sometimes it’s necessary to raise them), are now treated as inflexible tests of tribal purity.
To use a fancy word, there’s a metacognition deficit. Very few in public life habitually step back and think about the weakness in their own thinking and what they should do to compensate. A few people I interview do this regularly (in fact, Larry Summers is one). But it is rare. The rigors of combat discourage it.
Of the problems that afflict the country, this is the underlying one..."
Katrina Looters
After Katrina, Cops Given OK to Shoot Looters - CBS News: "In the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina, an order circulated among New Orleans police authorizing officers to shoot looters, according to present and former members of the department..."
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Spite For The 9/11 Face
Op-Ed Columnist - How Fox Betrayed Petraeus - NYTimes.com: "...So virulent is the Islamophobic hysteria of the neocon and Fox News right — abetted by the useful idiocy of the Anti-Defamation League, Harry Reid and other cowed Democrats — that it has also rendered Gen. David Petraeus’s last-ditch counterinsurgency strategy for fighting the war inoperative. How do you win Muslim hearts and minds in Kandahar when you are calling Muslims every filthy name in the book in New York? ..."
Fake Conservatives
Kristol: Obama Not A Muslim - Swampland - TIME.com: "...The cynical desecration of traditional conservative principles is a hallmark of the damage that people like Kristol have done to American political discourse and to a philosophical movement that, in its best, most sophisticated--and yes, ultimately, elitist--form, has plenty of value to contribute to our current policy discussions. Here are some conservative principles I admire: Foreign policy realism, budget discipline and a belief in (carefully regulated) markets as the best vehicles for delivering prosperity and even some forms of government services. The best conservatism has a healthy respect for complexity and a deep skepticism about the perfectability of human nature. Kristol's superficial cant is somewhat different: it combines a deep addiction to oversimplification with an even deeper cynicism about the exploitability of human nature. This brand of radicalism--bellicose crusades abroad, riotous tax-cutting and cronyism at home and a mean-spirited nativist populism--has been a sad but witting perversion of a valuable tradition.
The mosque controversy shows that many people who claim to lead the conservative movement do not believe in freedom of religion or private property; it also demonstrates that they are not conservatives, in any meaningful sense of the word, at all..."
The mosque controversy shows that many people who claim to lead the conservative movement do not believe in freedom of religion or private property; it also demonstrates that they are not conservatives, in any meaningful sense of the word, at all..."
Monday, August 23, 2010
Doctors Shafting Teachers
"A plan to cut reimbursement rates to doctors who care for the poor and disabled has led to a tussle between Gov. Bev Perdue and North Carolina physicians.
In the current state budget, Perdue and the legislature agreed that Medicaid reimbursement rates would be reduced by $26.6 million or 1.35 percent, if the state found it necessary to close a gap in federal Medicaid funding.
Perdue's office says the cut is now necessary. The doctors say the state has access to plenty of federal money and could use a $300 million federal education windfall to avoid cutting the rates.
Perdue's office pitches the debate as one between teachers' wallets and doctors' incomes.
'Are they suggesting that we take designated education money away from teachers and pay them instead?' said Chrissy Pearson, a spokeswoman for Perdue, a Democrat. 'The state is in the business of trying to protect essential services in a very tough recession. We hope these providers will join us in understanding that we're trying very hard to find a middle ground between slashing services and balancing a budget.'
Doctors groups say Medicaid rates are already low and that reducing them further will force doctors to accept fewer Medicaid patients..."
In the current state budget, Perdue and the legislature agreed that Medicaid reimbursement rates would be reduced by $26.6 million or 1.35 percent, if the state found it necessary to close a gap in federal Medicaid funding.
Perdue's office says the cut is now necessary. The doctors say the state has access to plenty of federal money and could use a $300 million federal education windfall to avoid cutting the rates.
Perdue's office pitches the debate as one between teachers' wallets and doctors' incomes.
'Are they suggesting that we take designated education money away from teachers and pay them instead?' said Chrissy Pearson, a spokeswoman for Perdue, a Democrat. 'The state is in the business of trying to protect essential services in a very tough recession. We hope these providers will join us in understanding that we're trying very hard to find a middle ground between slashing services and balancing a budget.'
Doctors groups say Medicaid rates are already low and that reducing them further will force doctors to accept fewer Medicaid patients..."
Lest We Forget: Tax Cuttery Edition
Op-Ed Columnist - Bush Tax Cuts - Now That’s Rich - NYTimes.com: "
"...And there’s a real chance that Republicans will get what they want. That’s a demonstration, if anyone needed one, that our political culture has become not just dysfunctional but deeply corrupt.
What’s at stake here? According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, making all of the Bush tax cuts permanent, as opposed to following the Obama proposal, would cost the federal government $680 billion in revenue over the next 10 years. For the sake of comparison, it took months of hard negotiations to get Congressional approval for a mere $26 billion in desperately needed aid to state and local governments.
And where would this $680 billion go? Nearly all of it would go to the richest 1 percent of Americans, people with incomes of more than $500,000 a year. But that’s the least of it: the policy center’s estimates say that the majority of the tax cuts would go to the richest one-tenth of 1 percent. Take a group of 1,000 randomly selected Americans, and pick the one with the highest income; he’s going to get the majority of that group’s tax break. And the average tax break for those lucky few — the poorest members of the group have annual incomes of more than $2 million, and the average member makes more than $7 million a year — would be $3 million over the course of the next decade.
How can this kind of giveaway be justified at a time when politicians claim to care about budget deficits? Well, history is repeating itself. The original campaign for the Bush tax cuts relied on deception and dishonesty. In fact, my first suspicions that we were being misled into invading Iraq were based on the resemblance between the campaign for war and the campaign for tax cuts the previous year. And sure enough, that same trademark deception and dishonesty is being deployed on behalf of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans..."
Can O Turn It Around?
10 things Obama must do in 10 weeks - CNN.com: "(CNN) -- President Obama is facing criticism that his message has gone off track at a crucial time for his party and administration. With the midterm elections just 10 weeks away, the president's approval ratings are at their lowest. Analysts are predicting big wins for Republicans in November.
Ten weeks is an eternity in politics, and Republican and Democratic strategists say there are some key things Obama can do in the final stretch to restore the confidence of the American people and minimize expected losses for his party..."
Ten weeks is an eternity in politics, and Republican and Democratic strategists say there are some key things Obama can do in the final stretch to restore the confidence of the American people and minimize expected losses for his party..."
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