Ugh. Why is it so difficult to find Democrats not eager to bow to the craven fear-mongering of Republican rivals? TPM:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has now spoken out on the Muslim community center in New York -- saying that while the organizers are free to construct the project, it should be moved somewhere else.
"The First Amendment protects freedom of religion. Senator Reid respects that but thinks that the mosque should be built some place else," said a statement from Reid spokesman Jim Manley. "If the Republicans are being sincere, they would help us pass this long overdue bill to help the first responders whose health and livelihoods have been devastated because of their bravery on 911, rather than continuing to block this much-needed legislation."
Fer cryin' out loud. Reid is running scared because of rival Sharron Angle's taunts that Reid is Obama's waterboy by the lizard brains who want to equate all Muslims with terrorism and 9/11.
"As the Majority Leader, Harry Reid is usually President Obama's mouthpiece in the U.S. Senate, and yet he remains silent on this issue. Reid has a responsibility to stand up and say no to the mosque at Ground Zero or once again side with President Obama---this time against the families of 9/11 victims. America is waiting."
And of course, he caves. Saying that they have a First Amendment right to build it isn't that revolutionary a stance to take. One would hope that the Majority Leader of the Senate has at least a cursory understanding of the Constitution (which is, by the way, more than we can say for Angle). But to say that they should move it is to play into the irrational hatred and bigotry of the lowest common denominator and something for which Reid should be wholly ashamed. Greg Sargent:
Despite Reid's reaffirmation of this right, his response is still weak and indefensible. And it leaves the President hanging after he took a big risk to do the right thing. Obama did not explicitly endorse the decision to build the center. But Obama did say that if the group does proceed with that decision, we must respect that decision, in accordance with American values.
Reid is not willing to say that. Rather, he's saying, in effect, that even if he supports the group's right to build the center, he's not willing to respect the decision to do so. That's unacceptable, and leaves Obama isolated at a very sensitive moment.
What's more, it's unclear why coming out against the plan in the manner Reid did is even good politics for Democrats at this point. Reid basically threw the whole Dem caucus under the bus: With the Senate leader at odds with the president, the media will press every Senate Dem to declare which side they're on.
Dumb, Harry. On every level. Even Republican advisers like Mark McKinnon think that pursuing this is a loser for Republicans. Why do you need to be a loser too?
Want to tell Harry that he needs to smarten up? Contact him here.
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I know it's his job as Chair of the NRSC to paint a happy face on this, but Sen. John Cornyn does his best to pretend that the right wing Tea Party candidates who are pushing the Republican Party even further to the right aren't going to do any damage to the chance of them regaining a majority in the Congress this mid-term election.
As Steve Benen pointed out after the hacks over at The Politico called some of the GOP right wing candidates "offbeat", the party's run to the right might not work out so well for them:
But there's one point I'd disagree with here. The crux of the piece is that the "offbeat" candidates are winning because they bring a non-traditional background to the table. This year, the argument goes, credible, relevant experience in public policy and/or government is a turnoff to voters seeking a wholesale break with the status quo.
That's not a bad argument, but I don't see the landscape this way. These bizarre candidates won major primary campaigns because of their far-right, often radical, ideologies. That they're coming from outside the world of government and politics is just gravy.
Did Linda McMahon win in Connecticut because she ran a wrestling company? No, she won because she spent a lot of money, and convinced Republicans her primary opponent was too moderate. Ken Buck won in Colorado for the same reason -- his party-preferred rival was deemed insufficiently right-wing. Dan Maes got a boost from McInnis' plagiarism scandal, but he capitalized because the party's base appreciated his extreme ideology.
And in Kentucky, Rand Paul didn't thrive because primary voters were impressed with his "outsider" ophthalmological background; they liked his radical worldview.
This isn't, in other words, a year for "offbeat" candidates to thrive; it's a year for right-wing candidates to win GOP primaries, without much regard for electability.
John Cornyn also claims that we need more Republicans in the Congress to move President Obama "toward the middle". I'm not sure what he's been smoking if he actually believes that himself, but sadly the propagandized viewers at Fox will believe his bull pucky.
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Media Matters Eric Boehlert spent a little time talking to Ed Schultz about how Rand Paul and Sharron Angle have taken up the Sarah Palin mantle for how to deal with the press. Throw some stones on right wing radio or ClusterFox or some other right wing outlet where you're going to have a friendly audience. When the local media tries to get you to do an interview, run from them. Ignore the local media when they try to get you to do an interview and dismiss them as being biased against you. And then play the victim if they do some negative reporting anyway.
Thankfully as Eric Boehlert pointed out, even if this strategy is working on a national level, both Paul and Angle are not getting away with it on a local level.
BOEHLERT: Actually Sarah Palin has gotten a complete free ride. She has stiffed the press, told them... made it clear she's not going to deal with any of them. She posts, or her ghost writer posts on Facebook and the national press, you know, runs around and writes it down because it's important news. She has gotten a total free pass. She's not running for anything right now.
But in Kentucky and Nevada I think they... it's hurt them and the local press has made it known... has made this a story. The fact that they won't talk to the press has become a story and if you look at the polls it might be hurting them locally.
Now if we can just get them to do the same at a national level for any of them, especially our half-term Governor Sarah McQuitter if she throws her hat in for the Presidential race in 2012.
If you can't answer questions to what are just straight reporters and not pundits who are actually trying to do their jobs that should disqualify you for running for any office, and especially for the United States Senate and for President of the United States. Sadly our national corporate media has done nothing but undermine the work of the few real reporters we've got left out there.
How pitiful is it that as they reported here, Rand Paul even ran away from a local Fox affiliate after doing their national show?
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Cenk filled in for Dylan Ratigan again and wrapped up Friday's show with a spot praising the Democrats for finally looking like they're striking the right chord with their latest political ad going after Republicans for their views on privatizing Social Security and handing the funds over to Wall Street with a few very huge qualifiers following that praise that I could not agree with more.
Uygur: Finally, the Democrats getting it. This is such an obvious winning strategy and the Republicans gave you the Queen here when John Boehner and Mike Pence came out and said, hey you know what, maybe we should raise the age of Social Security before you even get it, or when they said maybe we should cut your benefits.
You know what the numbers are? The American people hate that idea. A new AARP poll says 85% of the country oppose cutting Social Security. 68% say even though the budget is really important, that we shouldn't cut Social Security or Medicare to trim the deficit according to a recent Greenberg poll.
Look, the American people are absolutely clear on this. When the Republicans asked over and over as Bush did and now Pence and Boehner are doing, "Hey can we cut your Social Security?" the American people say "Hell no you can't!" to quote John Boehner.
So given this golden opportunity, why don't you attack on this? Make Boehner the new Gingrich and say if Boehner is in charge of the House, what he's going to do is he's going to come after your Social Security?
That has the added benefit of being true. But how do the Democrats screw this up? Look, it's a good ad and a good campaign to start with but they've already shot themselves in the foot because already Steny Hoyer who's one of the leaders in the House came out and said "Well maybe we should consider trimming Social Security or raising the age that you would have to retire and then James Clyburn came said very similar things.
Now that's the trouble for the Democrats in the House, but how about Obama? Obama, a Democratic President that promised change has got a deficit commission where 14 out of the 18 people involved in the commission are fiscal conservatives.
The likely result of that deficit commission is, they're going to come out and say let's cut Social Security.
That's insane!
Yes it is. As Cenk said it's not too late for them to make this a defining issue if they had an ounce of political sense at all. Given Gibbs brain dead remarks this week, I've got to wonder. I've said this before and I'll say it again, if they think the public is going to sit quietly if they decide that the Social Security trust fund doesn't have to be paid back after they raided it or that Americans are going to be duped into turning it over to Wall Street, they've got another thing coming. Get rid of the cap and make the rich start paying their share. And while you're at it lower the rate for all of us when you do that.
What a dope. "I've since been studying, and Chile has done this..." During the time of Reagan, Chile's Social Security system was considered to be the wingnut Holy Grail. I guess Sharon didn't get too far in her "studying" and whatnot, or she'd know why the saner people just don't talk about Chile in much detail (of course, there's always the optimists at the Cato Institute):
Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Sharron Angle says the nation's Social Security system needs to be privatized, and she says it was done before in Chile.CBS affiliate 8 News Now reports on what the Tea Party-backed hopeful had to say on the matter in an interview on Thursday:
...Angle's new ads say she's out to save Social Security by protecting it from government raids.
But in the primary, she said that Medicare and Social Security needed to be phased out in favor of something privatized, saying, that it can't be fixed. 8 News NOW asked how is that not a flip flop.
"It is when we have a $2.5 trillion raid and pillaging going on and an empty trust fund and now we are upside down. As of last Friday, they said, (there was a) $41 billion shortfall in Social Security. $41 billion less going in than coming out. It's broken," she said.
Angle then referred to 1980s Chile -- then under a military dictatorship -- to explain her previous statements that the United States should phase out its current system.
"When I said privatize, that's what I meant," explained the Senate contender. "That I thought we would just have to go to the private sector for a template on how this is supposed to be done. However, I've since been studying and Chile has done this."
However, the pension system established in 1981 by right-wing Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is no longer a fully private system. Chile's system was revamped in 2008 to expand public pensions for groups left out of its system, including low-income seniors.
There are lots of reasons why, in the real world, a privatized system doesn't work.
For the first ten years, while Chile had high inflation, their investment funds did well, since about half was invested in government bonds that were indexed to inflation. But once the economy cooled down, returns fell and they now pay little in return.
Investors also pay very high fees, which hit the low wage earners harder. (Oh, and by the way? The funds are widely thought to be corrupt cartels, protected by the government. Of course, that would never happen here!) And low wage earners were notorious under-reporters of income. Another problem: the system isn't set up for short-term contract work, which is now a common form of employment.
The funds don't pay out much, especially for low wage earners. (Unlike our Social Security system.) Notice the stories the wingnuts quote all point to "average" return -- but that's artificially high due to the period of high inflation.
And it didn't pay, anyway. Because of transition costs and other factors, the Chilean privatized system costs three times as much to run.
But the regime knew what they were doing: They excluded the military from the private plans, members of which continue to receive pensions under the old, more generous system.
Time for your weekly Driftglass and Bluegal podcast. Enjoy everybody!
You can listen to past editions here and at http://dgbgpodcast.blogspot.com/, and the podcast is also available on i-Tunes. If you enjoy these as much as I do, donations are greatly appreciated. Please consider throwing five bucks in the hat.
What a fun idea for a Saturday afternoon! Nothing like a Sharron Angle special to stoke up the fires of homophobia and phony righteousness. Also? She's inspired a treasure hunt.
Here's how it goes. Sharron Angle said in an interview that she would return any campaign contributions from corporate PACs that supported gay rights. That's an invitation too juicy to turn down. Via Greg Sargent:
Angle laid out this position in a candidate questionnaire that she filled out for the Washington-based Government is not God PAC.
In question 35A of the questionnaire, Angle was asked:
Would you refuse PAC money from those who are fundamentally opposed to your views on social issues?
Angle checked the Yes box. The questionnaire then asked:
In reference to question 35A, Intel Corporation supports "equal rights for gays" and offers benefits to "partners" of homosexual employees. Would you refuse funds from this corporate PAC?
Angle again checked the Yes box.
Ok, here's the deal. Angle's FEC listing of donor PACs is here. Let's just look at one -- the Alamo PAC. Why lookee there at all those corporate donors to that PAC. That's a very big long list of corporate donors. Of course, when corporations donate to PACs like Alamo PAC and Alamo PAC then passes along a donation to Angle, there's no single company to hang the contribution on. But I'm willing to bet one of those companies supports gay rights.
We could also look at the Tea Party Express, and its corporate donors, because Angle received a boatload of donations from them.
The hunt is on. Let's find those contributions and get that refund machine started!
Let me interject a few words before we let Russell speak for himself and run away with the show. In 1821, extolling the virtues of the still young Republic, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, noted that we do not go "abroad in search of monsters to destroy." That was then. And, besides, he never said we don't search them out domestically. Not that we have to search very far. Yesterday Rep. Joe Sestak pointed out Pat Toomey's motley monster picks. Our own Blue America contest, There's A Republican For That, is turning up some real doozies too. In fact, we got a lot of incredible recommendations even over and above the obvious monsters like Michele Bachmann, Sharron Angle, David Rivera and, obviously, Pat Toomey. One name that came up over and over again was Georgia firebrand Paul Broun. My friend Bertis, who lives in Athens, Georgia, in the heart of Broun's district, suggested I look into the gung-ho progressive Democrat running against him, Russell Edwards. So I did.
I called Edwards and asked him if, like so many white Southern Democrats, he would metastasize into some kind of a reactionary Blue Dog voting with the Republicans against the interests of ordinary working families if he wound up getting elected to Congress. I was more than happy with his answer and asked him to write a guest post for us, introducing himself. If you like what you see below, please consider donating to his campaign through ActBlue.
My name is Russell Edwards, and I’m the Democratic Nominee for U.S. Congress from GA’s 10th District. I’m facing off against incumbent PaulBroun, Jr., one of the most dangerous politicians in the nation according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Luckily, Broun, Jr. is also a pitiful fundraiser and only has a little over 130k cash on hand. In our first quarter, we raised over 100k and are closing on him fast.
GA’s Tenth includes Athens and Augusta-- two Democratic strongholds-- along with a smattering of rural NE GA. There are strong pockets of African-American communities, helping to explain the fact that Democrats Michael Thurmond and Thurbert Baker have carried the 10th every time they have run for statewide office. Broun, Jr. won in a special election in 2007 in what the Athens newspaper called “the greatest political upset in GA history.”
Since Broun’s victory, he has fought hard to be the most embarrassing politician in America. Here’s a short vid of his greatest hits. [The video is up on top of the page.]
I am a progressive Democrat and have no plans to join the Blue Dog Caucus should I be elected. They have done absolutely nothing to help me, and I’m not courting them with talk about more tax cuts for the wealthy. I’m speaking candidly about how my District should fight to create jobs and support our schools. Issues that are important to build a strong middle class and ensure every one has a chance to live a life of dignity and respect.
The Blue Dogs perhaps lost me forever during the health care reform debate. During that time, Broun Jr. was a key apparatchik in the Republican fear-mongering machine. He told full rooms of senior citizens that “if they pass this bill, they’re going to give your grandmother narcotics until she catches pneumonia and dies.” At the same time, I launched my own forum series that focused on the need for reform and how best to achieve it. How could I possibly have sided with Broun Jr. and so many Blue Dogs who voted against the final health care reform bill? To me, it was clear the abuses of the private health insurance industry had to be reigned in. These companies were denying insurance to battered women, claiming the abuse they received was a pre-existing condition for Christ’s sake!
Growing up, I came to realize the importance of helping those in my community who were unable to help themselves. I saw the truth that people suffer everyday in our country often for reasons outside their control. Today, it seems the Blue Dogs have strayed too far from empathy-- comfortable to gain as much power as possible through corporate fundraising dollars. Why else would one vote against a bill banning pre- existing conditions? And don’t even give me that weak tea that you voted against it because it didn’t do enough-- your campaign contributions deceive you.
As I mentioned Thursday night, it looks like Henry Waxman has come to much the same conclusion. And by the way, that report Russell referred to above from the Southern Poverty Law Center... it's worth reading their whole statement on why they see Paul Broun as "an enabler" of violence and terrorism:
A medical doctor who makes house calls only to avoid "bureaucratic encumbrances," far-right U.S. Rep. Paul Broun took over Georgia's 10th Congressional District after the death of Charlie Norwood in 2007. Since then, Broun has become a pal of the antigovernment Patriot movement, warning in apocalyptic terms of a coming socialist takeover by Barack Obama and his allies.
This April 19, 15 years to the day after the Oklahoma City bombing, Broun is scheduled to join several Patriot leaders at the Second Amendment March in Washington, D.C. On the agenda that day with Broun are Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers, a group that suspects the government has plans to round up Americans and put them in concentration camps, and Gun Owners of America's Larry Pratt, a fan of militias who has been criticized for ties to white supremacists.
Broun says gun rights are necessary to "prevent treason in America."
Fearmongering and fundraising with Paul Broun
Saying Broun is a fierce critic of the president would be an understatement. Broun has alleged that a civilian reserve corps that Obama proposed, and the Bush administration endorsed, might be used to establish a dictatorship. "We can't be lulled into complacency. You have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany," Broun said in 2008.
A "birther," Broun has openly questioned Barack Obama's citizenship. When asked by a radio host whether Barack Obama was a U.S. citizen or a Christian, both established facts, Broun responded, "I don't know." Broun also calls Cuba's former dictator Fidel Castro Obama's "good buddy."
Last year, Broun told his constituents that the health care bill was the work of a "socialistic elite"-- referring to Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid-- who might use a pandemic disease or natural disaster as an excuse to declare martial law. "They're trying to develop an environment where they can take over," he said. "We've seen that historically." At a 2009 town hall, he called Pelosi "a domestic enemy of the Constitution."
So far, Broun's legislative work has been scant. In 2009, Broun voted against a climate-change bill, calling the concept of manmade global warming a "hoax" perpetrated by the scientific community. In 2009, he proposed legislation proclaiming 2010 "The Year of the Bible." Earlier, he introduced the "Military Honor and Decency Act" that would ban sales of pornography on military installations. The bill has gone nowhere.
Athens has a proud musical tradition and the most famous musicians from their are undoubtably REM. The band members have not just contributed to Russell's campaign, they're co-hosting a fundraising event for him as well. It's like Hollywood! Maybe Broun can counter with Ted Nugent or get Bound For Glory to come down from Minnesota-- unless they're too busy working to reelect Michele Bachmann.
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Keith hasn't been able to get Sharron Angle to go on his show for an interview, so they just did a mash-up from her previous interviews with him asking the questions they think she would have liked him to ask.
Gosh, I'm pretty sure that Angle never took that Dale Carnegie course. If this is the kind of crazy she says in front of questionably "friendly press", I can't imagine what she says without the presence of media at all.
A press release from Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle today goes after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for voting in favor of the economic stimulus package. The release features the headline: "Harry Reid's Plan to Save the Nevada Economy: Coked-up Stimulus Monkeys."
The release cites a Republican Senate report that details some of the more attention-grabbing line-items in the stimulus bill:
Harry Reid says 'no one can do more' for Nevada. We had no idea Harry's plan of 'more' meant spending millions on coked-up monkeys and exotic ants while our state is ravaged by the worst foreclosure rate and highest unemployment rate in the nation," said Jerry Stacy, spokesman for U.S. Senatorial [candidate] Sharron Angle.
The release cites reports from ABC News and CNBC, The Bureau of Labor Statistics and Reid's own website.
A full read of the ABC News report features a quote from the recipient of the 'coked-up stimulus monkeys' grant. Bonnie Davis, a spokeswoman for The Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, told ABC the "small grant has helped protect very important research that will have significant impact on public health in regards to cocaine addiction and the issue of relapse."
Nevada journalist Jon Ralston unearths an interview that Sharron Angle did with Christian radio that is perhaps her most eyebrow-raising contribution to the conversation yet. In it, she says that government expansion under Obama and Dems is an effort to make government into our "God."
In case you're tempted to dismiss this as a figure of speech, Angle makes it clear that she's being literal, adding that our dependence on government is "idolatry" and that this is a "violation of the First Commandment." Here's the key bit:
"And these programs that you mentioned -- that Obama has going with Reid and Pelosi pushing them forward -- are all entitlement programs built to make government our God. And that's really what's happening in this country is a violation of the First Commandment. We have become a country entrenched in idolatry, and that idolatry is the dependency upon our government. We're supposed to depend upon God for our protection and our provision and for our daily bread, not for our government."
Oy vey. Seriously, there's no cure for that level of teh stupid.
