Showing posts with label Republicans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Republicans. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Decision 2010: The Running Diary of a Liberal with the Flu
I love Election Night. Some more than others. This year, I've been home all day - possibly with the flu - dozing in and out of cable news coverage. With a stomach full of chicken soup (for the Democrats, who didn't have the testicular fortitude to run on their own accomplishments) and a head full of mucus (for the Republicans, cause, well, fuck them), I'm hopped up and ready to go. Let the games begin....
6:20 - This tweet from @HotlineJosh: Exit polls show Rubio +21 in #FLSEN pretty much sums up what type of night it's going to be. I know Rubio's going to take this down, the lovely Tea Party anti-immigrant Cuban that he is, but +21 is a bad, bad sign.
6:22 - Memo to Lester Holt: Lisa Loeb would like her glasses back
6:40 - Chris Von Hollen (D-Ma) with his best "Baghdad Bob" impersonation by basically saying the pundits are wrong and there is no GOP Wave. Meanwhile, Mike Pence (R-IN), who's race has already been called is claiming that the people will be rewarded for their vote by having their favorite corporations and billionaires have their taxes cut. Maybe it will help the Texas Rangers keep Cliff Lee?
6:48 - I'm very disappointed. I spent 5 minutes looking for FOX News on my television, and when I finally find it, it's a clip of Obama speaking with a massive "UNIVISION" logo emphasizing that this President speaks to Latinos. I was seriously expecting to see Britt Hume doing lines off of Ann Coulter's ass and Sean Hannity pouring champagne over a Ronald Reagan Collector's Plate. For what it's worth: Nobody on their "B" team expects Obama to be be as graceful and dignified as Bush was in 2006.
6:54 - YES! The Bush Memoir leaks have begun!!!!! This suddenly brought me joy: "President George W. Bush considered dumping Vice President Dick Cheney from his 2004 reelection ticket to dispel the myths about Mr. Cheney’s power in the White House and “demonstrate that I was in charge,” the former president says in a new memoir." Now that's the petulant, spoiled little bitch I remember!
7:00 - OUR FIRST RESULTS. Rand Paul in Kentucky. Important to know this seat is not switching parties. Well, unless you wanna claim it's the crusty old angry party of Jim Bunning to the young, enthusiastic, stupid and racist party of Rand Paul. I'm actually looking forward to his career. Dan Coats in Indiana, that's technically a switch with Evan Bayh (D) retiring. Well, it's a switch if you ever really believed Bayh when he said he was a Democrat. Jim DeMint in South Carolina, easily reelected. His growing more entertainingly dangerous by the hour. Patrick Leahy in Vermont, old reliable. Even if he looks like a shady secret society master of the universe. Georgia, between Incumbent Republican Johnny Isakson and a black guy even I've never heard of is "too early to call".
The Republicans, who need to pick up 10 seats, have picked up 1.
7:08 Rachel Maddow just threw Evan Bayh under the bus. Love it. "The Democrats will miss Evan Bayh's senate seat. They won't miss Evan Bayh". Meanwhile, Howard Fineman's basically reporting Rand Paul spent lots of time in Mitch McConnell's bicycle shop.
7:13 Seeing all these fancy high-tech polling/counting graphics and gimmicks makes me long for Tim Russert and his erasable white board. Then again, everything makes me miss Tim Russert.
7:19 45% of Indiana voters support the Tea Party. I move that if any state breaks 50% on that issue, they have to secede. In other news, WHDH is reporting that Barney Frank's camp is "worried". That'd be a major score for the GOP along with MSNBC, cause you know that 11PM timeslot is being held for "Let's Be Frank".
7:44 Rob Portman, former Bush budget guy wins Ohio's Senate seat. Bush's budget guy. Kinda like being Ghandi's chef, no?
7:50
First African-American Republican elected to next Congress -- AP calls #SC01 for Tim Scott (R). So, um, does Tim have any nieces or nephews?
6:20 - This tweet from @HotlineJosh: Exit polls show Rubio +21 in #FLSEN pretty much sums up what type of night it's going to be. I know Rubio's going to take this down, the lovely Tea Party anti-immigrant Cuban that he is, but +21 is a bad, bad sign.
6:22 - Memo to Lester Holt: Lisa Loeb would like her glasses back
6:40 - Chris Von Hollen (D-Ma) with his best "Baghdad Bob" impersonation by basically saying the pundits are wrong and there is no GOP Wave. Meanwhile, Mike Pence (R-IN), who's race has already been called is claiming that the people will be rewarded for their vote by having their favorite corporations and billionaires have their taxes cut. Maybe it will help the Texas Rangers keep Cliff Lee?
6:48 - I'm very disappointed. I spent 5 minutes looking for FOX News on my television, and when I finally find it, it's a clip of Obama speaking with a massive "UNIVISION" logo emphasizing that this President speaks to Latinos. I was seriously expecting to see Britt Hume doing lines off of Ann Coulter's ass and Sean Hannity pouring champagne over a Ronald Reagan Collector's Plate. For what it's worth: Nobody on their "B" team expects Obama to be be as graceful and dignified as Bush was in 2006.
6:54 - YES! The Bush Memoir leaks have begun!!!!! This suddenly brought me joy: "President George W. Bush considered dumping Vice President Dick Cheney from his 2004 reelection ticket to dispel the myths about Mr. Cheney’s power in the White House and “demonstrate that I was in charge,” the former president says in a new memoir." Now that's the petulant, spoiled little bitch I remember!
7:00 - OUR FIRST RESULTS. Rand Paul in Kentucky. Important to know this seat is not switching parties. Well, unless you wanna claim it's the crusty old angry party of Jim Bunning to the young, enthusiastic, stupid and racist party of Rand Paul. I'm actually looking forward to his career. Dan Coats in Indiana, that's technically a switch with Evan Bayh (D) retiring. Well, it's a switch if you ever really believed Bayh when he said he was a Democrat. Jim DeMint in South Carolina, easily reelected. His growing more entertainingly dangerous by the hour. Patrick Leahy in Vermont, old reliable. Even if he looks like a shady secret society master of the universe. Georgia, between Incumbent Republican Johnny Isakson and a black guy even I've never heard of is "too early to call".
The Republicans, who need to pick up 10 seats, have picked up 1.
7:08 Rachel Maddow just threw Evan Bayh under the bus. Love it. "The Democrats will miss Evan Bayh's senate seat. They won't miss Evan Bayh". Meanwhile, Howard Fineman's basically reporting Rand Paul spent lots of time in Mitch McConnell's bicycle shop.
7:13 Seeing all these fancy high-tech polling/counting graphics and gimmicks makes me long for Tim Russert and his erasable white board. Then again, everything makes me miss Tim Russert.
7:19 45% of Indiana voters support the Tea Party. I move that if any state breaks 50% on that issue, they have to secede. In other news, WHDH is reporting that Barney Frank's camp is "worried". That'd be a major score for the GOP along with MSNBC, cause you know that 11PM timeslot is being held for "Let's Be Frank".
7:44 Rob Portman, former Bush budget guy wins Ohio's Senate seat. Bush's budget guy. Kinda like being Ghandi's chef, no?
7:50
First African-American Republican elected to next Congress -- AP calls #SC01 for Tim Scott (R). So, um, does Tim have any nieces or nephews?
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
The Christie Educashun Massacre: Is Our Voters Learning?
Over the past two weeks, there's been quite the brouhaha here in Jersey over Obese Governor Chris Christie's budgetary assault on education. The outrage seems especially heightened on facebook, most likely because those of us against the Governor's cuts know how to use things like computers. Already, school districts across the state are in the process of layoffs, targeting the arts, special needs programs, and just about everything but the disgustingly disproportionate salaries of the school administrators. Despite the fact that the budget still needs to be passed by the State Legislature, most districts are proactively bracing for the pending Armageddon.
I can - most people can - go on and on about why New Jersey's finances are a joke or the countless reasons why property taxes are so high, but that's a subject for a doctoral dissertation (Or, it can be summed up with three words: Shared Bleeping Services). What's being lost in the commotion of the proposed funding slash is that this has absolutely nothing, nada, zilch to do with "the tough economic climate". Aside from the bailed out bankers, nobody's really turned the corner yet and cuts are anticipated and expected in every sector, be it public or private. The story here is the magnitude to which the governor is going to dismantle the state's public education institution and it's employees.
Do teachers and other state employees enjoy better benefits than those of us in the private sector? Without a doubt. But you need to keep in mind: 25 years ago, that wasn't the case. States had to enhance these benefits to entice workers because benefits like this were the status quo for most working Americans. Somewhere along the lines, a certain Alzheimer's suffering President made it his mission to dismantle the American Worker's Unions and trickle up every last penny to the super-rich. The end result was predictable: the average American would now work more for less, in terms of salary and benefits, while the lucky few would prosper beyond their wildest dreams.
State employees did not have their unions broken and maintained what were once "standard" but are now considered "elaborate" benefits. Instead of the American worker demanding benefits as strong as the public sector, the teachers have been boogey-manned into pigs at the trough, living high on of your tax paying hog. And this attempt to bust the union is only part of Christie's agenda.
The other part, more subliminal but intensely dogmatic, is continuing the trend of the Republican Party's "learnicide". Statistics do not lie: The enemy of the Republican Party is an educated voter. Take your own personal life experiences. Who would you consider to be the five smartest people you know? Do you think they voted for George Bush? John McCain? Or if you're life depended on it, would you guess they voted for President Obama, or John Kerry, or Al Gore?
The reliably Republican voters I've come across in my life, more often then not fit one of three molds:
1. Religious Crazies/Jesus Freaks
2. People in a tax bracket I can only dream of reaching
3. Angry, white, working class people, most likely men.
The first two I understand - the Democratic Party is not the place to be if you want to put the Ten Commendments in every school or outlaw the term "Happy Holidays". Nor should it be a home to millionaires looking to become billionaires at any expense.
But it's the last part that always baffled me - for they're the largest part of the Republican Base. You can't get to 271 Electoral Votes or 225 Seats in the House by building a coalition of Born Again Oil Tycoons. No, the GOP has for a generation now, convinced millions of people to continually vote against their best interests. Some of the same people who have lost their jobs, their insurance, seen their savings and benefits become a shell of what they once were, and struggled to put their kids through college show up like clockwork every November and go straight down the Republican line, even though 30 years of Conservative rule has only led to two wars and the worst economic crisis in nearly a century. Even though 30 years of Republicanism has led us from The Lone Superpower to China's prison bitch.
To make a long story short: They don't want you to realize this. There's a reason a Harvard Graduate War Hero like John Kerry can lose to a C-Student Diserter like George Bush: The GOP's made education a stigma.
And now Chris Christie wants to bring that New Jersey. If you were to look at the most educated states in America, you'd notice two remarkable trends (aside from NJ's top 5 ranking that Christie wants to sink):
1. None of the top 15 states, ranked by highest percentage of adults with at least a bachelor's degree, voted Bush-Bush-McCain over the last 3 election cycles.
2. None of the worst 15 states voted Gore-Kerry-Obama.
There's no way to sugarcoat it: The Republican Base is dumb as dogshitt. And they need your children to be stupid if they're ever going to survive another generation. So don't buy the baloney that Christie's selling you about across the board painful cuts. This is geared at the mortal enemies of the GOP: literacy and comprehension.
I can - most people can - go on and on about why New Jersey's finances are a joke or the countless reasons why property taxes are so high, but that's a subject for a doctoral dissertation (Or, it can be summed up with three words: Shared Bleeping Services). What's being lost in the commotion of the proposed funding slash is that this has absolutely nothing, nada, zilch to do with "the tough economic climate". Aside from the bailed out bankers, nobody's really turned the corner yet and cuts are anticipated and expected in every sector, be it public or private. The story here is the magnitude to which the governor is going to dismantle the state's public education institution and it's employees.
Do teachers and other state employees enjoy better benefits than those of us in the private sector? Without a doubt. But you need to keep in mind: 25 years ago, that wasn't the case. States had to enhance these benefits to entice workers because benefits like this were the status quo for most working Americans. Somewhere along the lines, a certain Alzheimer's suffering President made it his mission to dismantle the American Worker's Unions and trickle up every last penny to the super-rich. The end result was predictable: the average American would now work more for less, in terms of salary and benefits, while the lucky few would prosper beyond their wildest dreams.
State employees did not have their unions broken and maintained what were once "standard" but are now considered "elaborate" benefits. Instead of the American worker demanding benefits as strong as the public sector, the teachers have been boogey-manned into pigs at the trough, living high on of your tax paying hog. And this attempt to bust the union is only part of Christie's agenda.
The other part, more subliminal but intensely dogmatic, is continuing the trend of the Republican Party's "learnicide". Statistics do not lie: The enemy of the Republican Party is an educated voter. Take your own personal life experiences. Who would you consider to be the five smartest people you know? Do you think they voted for George Bush? John McCain? Or if you're life depended on it, would you guess they voted for President Obama, or John Kerry, or Al Gore?
The reliably Republican voters I've come across in my life, more often then not fit one of three molds:
1. Religious Crazies/Jesus Freaks
2. People in a tax bracket I can only dream of reaching
3. Angry, white, working class people, most likely men.
The first two I understand - the Democratic Party is not the place to be if you want to put the Ten Commendments in every school or outlaw the term "Happy Holidays". Nor should it be a home to millionaires looking to become billionaires at any expense.
But it's the last part that always baffled me - for they're the largest part of the Republican Base. You can't get to 271 Electoral Votes or 225 Seats in the House by building a coalition of Born Again Oil Tycoons. No, the GOP has for a generation now, convinced millions of people to continually vote against their best interests. Some of the same people who have lost their jobs, their insurance, seen their savings and benefits become a shell of what they once were, and struggled to put their kids through college show up like clockwork every November and go straight down the Republican line, even though 30 years of Conservative rule has only led to two wars and the worst economic crisis in nearly a century. Even though 30 years of Republicanism has led us from The Lone Superpower to China's prison bitch.
To make a long story short: They don't want you to realize this. There's a reason a Harvard Graduate War Hero like John Kerry can lose to a C-Student Diserter like George Bush: The GOP's made education a stigma.
And now Chris Christie wants to bring that New Jersey. If you were to look at the most educated states in America, you'd notice two remarkable trends (aside from NJ's top 5 ranking that Christie wants to sink):
1. None of the top 15 states, ranked by highest percentage of adults with at least a bachelor's degree, voted Bush-Bush-McCain over the last 3 election cycles.
2. None of the worst 15 states voted Gore-Kerry-Obama.
There's no way to sugarcoat it: The Republican Base is dumb as dogshitt. And they need your children to be stupid if they're ever going to survive another generation. So don't buy the baloney that Christie's selling you about across the board painful cuts. This is geared at the mortal enemies of the GOP: literacy and comprehension.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Pussies "R" Us
Surprised that a Republican nude model won Teddy Kennedy’s seat? A seat that hasn’t been held by a Republican since Henry Cabot Lodge? Don’t be. Nobody’s better at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory better than the Democrats, and a simple look at the scorecard just verifies it:
US: We won’t even investigate a former Vice President’s confirmed role in torture, a role that he’s pretty much broadcast over every major media outlet.
THEM: They were sitting in office for the worst terrorist attack on American soil in history and act like they’re the only ones capable of defending the country, even though they stalled the formation of a Homeland Security Department 5 years prior to 9/11.
US: One crazy radical with bombs in his underwear gets disarmed in flight and we allow ourselves to be portrayed as incapable and defenseless, by no less of a fraudulent expert than Rudy “The Crossdresser” Giuliani, he who decided an Emergency Response Center should be stationed in the WTC.
US: We have Dick Durban tearfully apologizing for comparing Guantanamo Bay and Abu Graihb to “Gulags”
THEM: They attend raucous rallies where claims are made that the Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces is a “Foreign Born Muslim Operative”.
THEM: Won’t think twice about launching a war, clearly without any absence of fact, logic or preparation.
US: Will pout as we both vote to authorize it, and worse, continue to execute it while we have the authority to end it.
THEM: They literally hold hands with the Saudi Royal Family and allow the bin Laden family to fly around the country while all flights are grounded on 9/11. Despite allegedly knowing that 16 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals.
US: We take it on the chin while they accuse us of attending to Haiti’s needs in time of crisis because “Haitians are brown”.
I can go on and on but what’s the point. Until Democrats stand up for core Democratic values like equal treatment for all, a fair playing ground, consumer protection, reasonable and rational defense and foreign policy and basic worker protections, they’re going to continue to lose elections.
They can’t frame an argument to save their lives and they have no friggin backbone. Health care’s a perfect example. Who gives a flying you-know-what what the insurance industry wants? Come up with your plan and muscle it through, use reconciliation if you must. But instead, they decided to give everyone a tug-job to the point where nobody: left, right or center wants this plan.
Is there hope that the tide will turn? I guess there always is. Look no further than the economic and poll numbers of both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton after one year in office. Reagan, as despicable as it was, still managed to push his agenda through with little resistance from the opposition that happened to control both chambers of congress. For some reason he was a renowned speaker and his team used this to forge a mandate.
Clinton, after taking hard midterm losses, became decidedly more centrist, practiced triangulation on everything down to what type of coffee would be served at congressional leadership meetings, and while many results were positive, he still ended up in front of a camcorder during a deposition.
Did record numbers of voters go to the polls last November to elect a boring, middle of the road triangulator like Bill Clinton? Hell no. We had that choice in the primary and we kicked her to the curb. You were elected to be transformative Mr. President, and somehow you let the Republicans (who broke this fucking world) relate more to the middle class than your own party. It's time to take a page from their playbook and raise hell, fuck the facts and get shit done.
US v. THEM
THEM: They impeached a sitting President over a fucking blowjob. The most basic of simple human pleasures. US: We won’t even investigate a former Vice President’s confirmed role in torture, a role that he’s pretty much broadcast over every major media outlet.
THEM: They were sitting in office for the worst terrorist attack on American soil in history and act like they’re the only ones capable of defending the country, even though they stalled the formation of a Homeland Security Department 5 years prior to 9/11.
US: One crazy radical with bombs in his underwear gets disarmed in flight and we allow ourselves to be portrayed as incapable and defenseless, by no less of a fraudulent expert than Rudy “The Crossdresser” Giuliani, he who decided an Emergency Response Center should be stationed in the WTC.
US: We have Dick Durban tearfully apologizing for comparing Guantanamo Bay and Abu Graihb to “Gulags”
THEM: They attend raucous rallies where claims are made that the Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces is a “Foreign Born Muslim Operative”.
THEM: Won’t think twice about launching a war, clearly without any absence of fact, logic or preparation.
US: Will pout as we both vote to authorize it, and worse, continue to execute it while we have the authority to end it.
THEM: They literally hold hands with the Saudi Royal Family and allow the bin Laden family to fly around the country while all flights are grounded on 9/11. Despite allegedly knowing that 16 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals.
US: We take it on the chin while they accuse us of attending to Haiti’s needs in time of crisis because “Haitians are brown”.
I can go on and on but what’s the point. Until Democrats stand up for core Democratic values like equal treatment for all, a fair playing ground, consumer protection, reasonable and rational defense and foreign policy and basic worker protections, they’re going to continue to lose elections.
They can’t frame an argument to save their lives and they have no friggin backbone. Health care’s a perfect example. Who gives a flying you-know-what what the insurance industry wants? Come up with your plan and muscle it through, use reconciliation if you must. But instead, they decided to give everyone a tug-job to the point where nobody: left, right or center wants this plan.
Is there hope that the tide will turn? I guess there always is. Look no further than the economic and poll numbers of both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton after one year in office. Reagan, as despicable as it was, still managed to push his agenda through with little resistance from the opposition that happened to control both chambers of congress. For some reason he was a renowned speaker and his team used this to forge a mandate.
Clinton, after taking hard midterm losses, became decidedly more centrist, practiced triangulation on everything down to what type of coffee would be served at congressional leadership meetings, and while many results were positive, he still ended up in front of a camcorder during a deposition.
Did record numbers of voters go to the polls last November to elect a boring, middle of the road triangulator like Bill Clinton? Hell no. We had that choice in the primary and we kicked her to the curb. You were elected to be transformative Mr. President, and somehow you let the Republicans (who broke this fucking world) relate more to the middle class than your own party. It's time to take a page from their playbook and raise hell, fuck the facts and get shit done.
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