Google investing in conservative groups, lobbyists

They're trying to be more "bipartisan."  I guess doing good and surviving in GOP America don't go hand in hand.

But Google's investment in the infrastructure of the conservative movement goes much deeper than what's been reported this summer.

The company known for its progressive politics is now giving money to the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Republican Governors Association, the GOP firm The David All Group, Crossroads Strategies, the Republican Attorneys General Association and the Republican State Leadership Committee, among others. On Thursday, Google and Fox News cosponsored a Republican presidential debate.

In the last nine months, Google has hired 18 lobbying shops -- not 18 lobbyists, but 18 firms, a dozen of them since July, a head-turning torrent of hiring that also includes consultants not required to register as lobbyists.

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Police arrest 80 Wall Street protesters

Maintaining civil order is critical so it's probably best that the police arrest those who raise questions about the multi-trillion dollar fleecing of America rather than address the core problems that the fleecers caused. I keep forgetting that civil disobedience is anti-American and is completely against democracy. Silly me.

Police arrested about 80 demonstrators near the New York Stock Exchange on Saturday as they marched through lower Manhattan.

The "Occupy Wall Street" protest is entering its second week. Several hundred protesters have been camped out at New York's private Zucotti Park, blocks from the stock exchange.

On Saturday afternoon, several hundred marched north toward Union Square.

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Obama’s small financial donors not showing interest this time

Sounds like quite a few people who expected "change" and aren't seeing it. The "professional left" is possibly a bit larger than the White House team imagined. So now that the Wall Street people who donated heavily to Obama in 2008 think that he's a socialist, the youth vote is disillusioned and the small donors feel that he gives in too easily, will this finally make a difference? The recent tone sounds like an improvement but at this point, most want more than just a few days of tough talk. NY Times:

They were once among President Obama’s most loyal supporters and a potent symbol of his political brand: voters of moderate means who dug deep for the candidate and his message of hope and change, sending him $10 or $25 or $50 every few weeks or months.

But in recent months, the frustration and disillusionment that have dragged down Mr. Obama’s approval ratings have crept into the ranks of his vaunted small-donor army, underscoring the challenges he faces as he seeks to rekindle grass-roots enthusiasm for his re-election bid.

In interviews with dozens of low-dollar contributors in the past two weeks, some said they were unhappy with what they viewed as Mr. Obama’s overly conciliatory approach to Congressional Republicans. Others cited what they saw as a lack of passion in the president, or said the sour economy had drained both their enthusiasm and their pocketbooks.

This issue is what really has stood out for me in the last few weeks of travel in the US. Friends and family who were among the most supportive of Obama in 2008 are disgusted with the constant crumbling on issue after issue. It hardly sounded like it was a casual concern, but instead, very deeply rooted with voters. Reading this NY Times piece, it sounds like it's a very serious problem that needs to be addressed. Read the rest of this post...

GOP prez candidate says Santorum lied about not hearing boos of gay soldier at GOP debate

Things are heating up.  A GOP presidential candidate, who was on the dais with Rick Santorum Thursday night, says Santorum isn't telling the truth when he told the media that he didn't hear the gay soldier being booed by the audience.

Also, it's interesting to note that while Huntsman, Santorum and Johnson all denounced the boos, Romney, Perry, Bachmann and Gingrich are now refusing to denounce the boos.

So basically, Romney, Perry, Bachmann and Gingrich stand behind the audience's booing of a US soldier serving in combat. More from AMERICAblog Gay.

Make sure you sign, and send around (retweet, Facebook) our open letter from former military members calling on all the GOP candidates to apologize for not saying a word in defense of the gay American soldier who was literally booed by the GOP debate audience.   Nearly 7000 people have signed.  Have you? Read the rest of this post...

Fox News caught lying about Santorum’s x-rated "Google problem"

Not that we should expect the Republican Ministry of Propaganda known as Fox "News" to ever tell the truth, but on this one, Fox's lie is quite glaring.

You see, Fox is trying to help uber-right-wing GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum fix his "Google problem." It's what Fox does, help Republicans. And, as usual, they're caught lying. Here's what Fox alleges (and it's not true, to be shown below):

Search giant Google’s chairman, Eric Schmidt, testified in front of Congress this week regarding the company’s possible abuse of its monopoly power in the search market. They have tremendous control over what pops up when a term is typed into the search button and, during elections, the first results matter. But I have some serious reservations about the claimed unbiased results Google lets the user see first.

Former Senator Rick Santorum (R-Penn.) is the father of seven children, a devout Catholic, and current GOP presidential candidate. But when someone types his name into the Google search box, the very first result that appears is a website detailing a sex act “by-product” named after the senator. In fact, the Senator’s own website is the fourth result.

By contrast, Rick Santorum’s website is the first result that both Yahoo and Bing give the user.

Why does Bing know that Rick Santorum’s own website is a better match than an explicitly sex-related site?

Um, Bing doesn't know better.  In fact, Bing's first result is the sex site.  And Yahoo's first result is a news story, followed by the second result, the sex site.  The campaign site is nowhere to be found on either.  Nice reporting, Fox.

Let's see what Bing and Yahoo actually show as the first result for Santorum:

Click image for larger version.

Click image for larger version.

So, as you can see, both Yahoo and Bing show "santorum" the smear above Santorum the man or the candidate.  Just like Google.

Caught with a little santorum on your face, Fox News? Read the rest of this post...

Obama making big push to win back minorities and other core Democratic voters

The Obama campaign is reportedly making a big push to win back minorities and core Democratic voters, per the NYT:

Operation Vote will function as a large, centralized department in the Chicago campaign office for reaching ethnic, religious and other voter groups. It will coordinate recruitment of an ethnic volunteer base and push out targeted messages online and through the media to groups such as blacks, Hispanics, Jews, women, seniors, young people, gays and Asian Americans.

It looks like the motivation is numbers, as in bad (or at least worsening) poll numbers, even in the black community:

A Washington Post-ABC poll published last week showed that while African Americans continue to view the president favorably in overwhelming numbers, the proportion of blacks expressing strongly positive views of Obama has dropped 25 points since mid-April — from 83 percent to 58 percent. His “favorable” rating has slipped below 50 percent among those age 18 to 29. And among all liberal Democrats, that number has dropped from 69 percent in April to 52 percent.

Gallup, meanwhile, has found that Obama’s approval rating has dropped among Jews....

Obama has stepped up his outreach to core supporters, as well. After months of criticism from black lawmakers that the president seemed reluctant to directly address the needs of struggling African Americans or even discuss the 16 percent jobless rate in that community, the president this month popped into a White House gathering where African American bloggers had been invited in to discuss the issue with senior aides.

Congressional Black Caucus officials say they are suddenly being showered with attention from the White House — even receiving a fact sheet after the president’s recent jobs speech calling the black unemployment rate “unacceptably high” and listing “targeted” help in the jobs plan, such as aid that would help 1.4 million African American families.

A lot of us predicted this two years ago, and really more than two years ago. We warned that core constituencies were getting seriously ticked off, and that the President's desire for comity was making him look, well, like a wimp (we just didn't use the word because it wasn't polite).  And in response, we were called "bedwetters," and more generally belittled by senior presidential aides.

I'm glad the President appears to be changing direction these past few weeks.  But if it's only based on the current polls, and the fear of not being re-elected, then how do we know we won't be back to where started (the phrases "f'g retards," "professional left," and "Internet left fringe" come to mind) the day after Barack Obama is re-elected? That's a core concern the campaign, and the White House, need to address.

We want to see an epiphany, not just a temporary tactical correction that will end on November 7, 2012, regardless of who wins. Read the rest of this post...