Two of Arizona’s most prominent bigots did not fare well yesterday.  DOJ sued Joe Arpaio over civil rights abuses and Jan Brewer made a complete fool of herself.

Once, thirty years ago, I spent a weekend in the Maricopa County Jail.  I was picked up on a Friday night on a random stop and released on Monday morning when I went to court and proved that I really had paid the speeding ticket they said was delinquent.  While I was there I witnesses extreme racism against Latinos.  Guards called them every derogatory name I have ever heard and beat one man brutally for throwing up.  I hear things are even worse since Crazy Joe took over.

3arpaio The Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Thursday against Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County for not cooperating with an investigation into whether his department was systematically violating the rights of Hispanics.

Obama administration officials called the suit the first time in 30 years that the federal government had to sue to compel a law enforcement agency to cooperate with an investigation concerning Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“The actions of the sheriff’s office are unprecedented,” Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the department’s civil rights division, said in a statement. “It is unfortunate that the department was forced to resort to litigation to gain access to public documents and facilities.”… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

If I were guilty as sin, I might stall too.

On to Jan “Show me your papers” Brewer.

3brewer It will go down as one of the most painful openings to a political debate in recent memory.

Gov. Jan Brewer stumbled and stammered through her opening statement during a televised debate Wednesday night, suffering through an embarrassing, cringe-eliciting pause that lasted more than 10 seconds.

With her hands clasped in front of her, she looked at the camera, then down, possibly at notes, and back up at the camera. She smiled, let out a loud exhale, then resumed her statement with a pronouncement of her record as governor.

"We have, uh, did what was right for Arizona," Brewer said, using a grammatical misconstruction she uttered twice during the debate.

Then, she bolted from a post-debate question-and-answer session with reporters after refusing to respond to queries about a past statement about bodies supposedly found beheaded in the Arizona desert… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <AP/Google>

Keith Olbermann has the video as he and correspondent, Paul Waldman, discuss the incident.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Brewer was right about one thing.  The did demonstrate the difference between her and her Democratic opponent.  Terry Goddard is not a bigoted idiot.

When I was a teenager, a group of us would spend Halloween night partying in the Sleepy Hollow graveyard at Tarry Town.  We feigned fear anticipating the appearance of the headless horseman.  Now we face the genuine fear headless bodies sneaking across the border from Mexico. Why fear that?  Well, if they have no heads, you know they’ll be voting Republican!

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The Progressive Congressional Caucus is leading an effort to tell President Obama that Social Security is off the table.  I ask you to help by adding your voice.  This is not part of an organized petition campaign.  It’s an grass-roots effort for each of us.

3socialsecurity Democrats led by Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Raul Grijalva are drawing a line in the sand before the White House’s fiscal commission: If your report recommends cuts or other changes to Social Security, they will say, you’ll lose our support.

In a letter to be sent to President Obama, obtained by TPM, House Democrats will pledge to vote against any legislation based on the commission’s report unless Social Security is taken off the table…

Inserted from <TPM>

Here is the full text of the letter:

Dear Mr. President,

We write today to express our strong support for Social Security and our view that it should be strengthened. We oppose any cuts to Social Security benefits, including raising the retirement age. We also oppose any effort to privatize Social Security, in whole or in part.

You have charged the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform with proposing recommendations that improve the long-term fiscal outlook and address the growth of entitlement spending. It is our view that Social Security–which is prohibited by law from adding to the national budget deficit–does not belong as part of those recommendations.

By 2023, Social Security will have built up a $4.3 trillion surplus, and, without any action, can pay at least 75 percent of all benefits thereafter. Because Social Security is funded separately from the general treasury and has no borrowing authority, it has not contributed to the federal deficit. Despite these facts, some Commission members have repeatedly alleged the need to cut Social Security for budgetary reasons.

For 75 years, Social Security has been a promise to the American people that if they work hard and pay their fair share, they will have a financially secure retirement. In communities across this country, Social Security benefits are often the only source of income helping families maintain a decent standard of living. Social Security’s benefits are modest, averaging less than $13,000 a year, but they are vital to the vast majority of Americans who receive them.

Cutting Social Security benefits further than they are already being cut by raising the retirement age from 65 to 67 would create needless hardship for millions of vulnerable Americans. This is especially true in the face of an economic downturn that has wiped out trillions of dollars that Americans were relying on for their retirement security and the increased dismantlement of the private and public pension systems.

If any of the Commission’s recommendations cut or diminish Social Security in any way, we will stand firmly against them. We urge you to join us in protecting and strengthening Social Security rather than letting it fall victim to a misguided attempt to reduce budget deficits on the backs of working families.

Sincerely,

Please call your Representative and ask him or her to sign the letter.  For contact information click here.  Enter your zip code at the top left.  Thank you.

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It goes without saying that Republicans oppose immigration reform.  One of the main reasons is that undocumented workers can’t complain when the Republican’s corporate cronies exploit them for their labor.  But in a hard economy sometimes mere exploitation is not profitable enough for them.  Why just exploit, when they can enslave?

republican_seal_cuffs The US Justice Department on Thursday announced indictments against six people for luring 400 Thais to the United States and conspiring to force them into working as farm laborers.

A grand jury in Honolulu indicted the six for their alleged scheme "to coerce the labor and services of approximately 400 Thai nationals brought by the defendants to the United States from Thailand from May 2004 through September 2005 to work on farms across the country."

Officials said Israeli Mordechai Orian, Pranee Tubchumpol, Shane Germann and Sam Wongsesanit of the Los Angeles-based company Global Horizons Manpower conspired with Thai labor recruiters Ratawan Chunharutai and Podjanee Sinchai to carry out the crimes that began with false promises of lucrative jobs.

The Thais, upon arrival in the United States, had their passports taken away and forced to pay thousands of dollars in recruitment fees, which were "financed by debts secured with the workers’ family property and homes."… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Alternet>

Now the article does not contain a single word about the Republican Party, so you may wonder just how I’m making the connection.  It turns out that the chief perpetrator has been investing in getting away with it, and the investment paid off… until now.  Mordechai Orian was a frequent and generous donor to the Republican Party.

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Yesterday I caught up with comments.  I took a break to resolve a health insurance issue, and, when I returned, the site was down.  A server failure at my HSP caused the problem, but we were offline most of the day.  As a result, I returned no visits.  Now I will fall behind again, because I’ll be tied up all day.  I’m meeting with the friend I mentioned in my article on MERS to help her prevent a foreclosure on a loan she was trying to renegotiate.  The only reason she fell behind on her payments is that the bankster told her to do so to qualify for the federal program.  I hope to catch up tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it tool me 3:44.  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: BP is warning Congress that if lawmakers pass legislation that bars the company from getting new offshore drilling permits, it may not have the money to pay for all the damages caused by its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

I anticipated this, and I suspect that the reason the Obama administration is allowing BP to continue operations in the Gulf is to keep them paying.

From Common Dreams: A shallow-water production rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded this morning [yesterday], causing the thirteen crew members aboard to abandon the structure.

Coast Guard rescuers are en route to the scene of the fire, 90 miles south of Vermilion Bay, Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough said. Twelve of the workers are in immersion suits, designed to protect them from hypothermia. One is reported injured.

I hope the workers are safe anp pray this is not the next gusher.

From BettyBowers.com: (H/T Daily Kos)  Biblical Marriage ;-)

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

3beeler

TGIF!  Is everyone safe from Earl?

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Our sixth full month since we moved from Blogger was another good one, with improvements in every category, except new visitors.  Bandwidth is also down a bit, because I changed the way I embed some of the pictures.

Here are our basic stats:

Visits-views

Here is our most recent Clustrmap.  It’s unchanged, because the site has not updated the map since August 1.

clustermap

Our durations are up a bit from 240 seconds last month:

Number of visits: 20066 – Average: 282 s

Number of visits

Percent

0s-30s

15502

77.2 %

30s-2mn

964

4.8 %

2mn-5mn

903

4.5 %

5mn-15mn

960

4.7 %

15mn-30mn

480

2.3 %

30mn-1h

641

3.1 %

1h+

616

3 %

T

That’s a good sign.

Search engine responses are still good.

14 different referring search engines

Pages

Percent

Hits

Percent

Google

1094

54.4 %

1946

62.2 %

Stumbleupon (Social Bookmark)

822

40.8 %

1038

33.2 %

Yahoo!

43

2.1 %

43

1.3 %

Bing

13

0.6 %

13

0.4 %

Digg (Social Bookmark)

11

0.5 %

14

0.4 %

Google (Images)

9

0.4 %

12

0.3 %

AOL

7

0.3 %

7

0.2 %

Windows Live

3

0.1 %

45

1.4 %

Unknown search engines

2

0 %

2

0 %

Ask

2

0 %

2

0 %

MSN Search

1

0 %

1

0 %

Dogpile

1

0 %

1

0 %

Baidu

1

0 %

1

0 %

Yandex

1

0 %

1

0 %

Our top non-blog referrer is BuzzFlash with over 3,000 referrals.

Our top 15 referrers (blogs) are:

http://jbm479.blogspot.com/

http://www.timsscaredstiff.com/

http://www.roseanneworld.com/blog/

http://themanwhowalksalonewalksfaster.blogspot.com/

http://infidel753.blogspot.com/

http://parsleyspics.blogspot.com/

http://carolinaparrothead.blogspot.com/

http://annette-justmylittlepieceoftheworld.blogspot.com/

http://america-weeps.blogspot.com/

http://whohijackedourcountry.blogspot.com/

http://www.worldwidehippies.com/

http://oakcreekforum.blogspot.com/

http://reconstitution.us/rcnew/

http://www.jackjodell.blogspot.com/

http://bildungblog.blogspot.com/

There’s some linkey-love.  The best ways you can publicize Politics Plus is to use the share button at the bottom of each post to list our articles on the the sites where you belong, and to quote PP articles on your own blogs.  The operative commandment here is “thou shalt steal.”  We’re on the same side here.  Even if you want to repost a whole article, that’s OK.  Just link back, please.

Technorati increased our global Technorati Authority from 494 to 497.  Our topical Technorati Authority (US Politics) is 603. So globally we’re at the top of the B-list, and topically, we’re A-list.  The more recognition we get, the more effect we can have toward ending the right-wing insanity.

We have 47,131 links on other websites, up from 45,301 last month.

We have 1,345 posts and 9,909 comments, as of midnight 9/1.

If you are tired of our wacky avatars and would like your own avatar, go to Gravatar.  Sign up using the email address you use to post comments here and upload the image you want to use.  Whenever you comment under that email address here or on any WordPress blog (several others too), that will be your avatar.

I’m still very happy with our progress, and thank you for it.  This success belongs to all of us.  Several people have told me that a main factor that brings them back is the quality of the replies to the messages.

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The Republican right has blamed the left for so called eco-terrorist, who police killed yesterday at the Discovery Channel. While I have no evidence that the man was a Republican, per se, it is clear that his hatred was engendered by Republicans and their media cronies.

GOPRacism3 This afternoon, a gunman entered the Discovery Communications building in Silver Spring, MD and appears to have taken at least one person hostage. Among his various bizarre, eco-related demands, one relates directly to immigration. The alleged hostage-taker, James Jay Lee, calls for the elimination of “anchor baby filth” and “immigration pollution”:

Programs must be developed to find solutions to stopping ALL immigration pollution and the anchor baby filth that follows that. Find solutions to stopping it. Call for people in the world to develop solutions to stop it completely and permanently. Find solutions FOR these countries so they stop sending their breeding populations to the US and the world to seek jobs and therefore breed more unwanted pollution babies. FIND SOLUTIONS FOR THEM TO STOP THEIR HUMAN GROWTH AND THE EXPORTATION OF THAT DISGUSTING FILTH! (The first world is feeding the population growth of the Third World and those human families are going to where the food is! They must stop procreating new humans looking for nonexistant jobs!)

Lee’s immigration screed bears a troubling resemblance to views and policies espoused by anti-immigrant groups such as NumbersUS [Republican Racists delinked], the Center for Immigration Studies [Republican Racists delinked] (CIS), the Federation for American Immigration Reform [Republican Racists delinked] (FAIR), Progressives for Immigration Reform [Lying Republican Racists delinked], and others. Just this past month, FAIR released “The Environmentalist’s Guide to a Sensible Immigration Policy [Republican Racists delinked.”… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

The pollution that bothered this sick extremist was racial pollution, and the Republicans have a virtual monopoly on racial hatred and bigotry, as they are the nativists, and the fourteenthers.  They are the ones that disenfranchise minority voters.  They are the ones who stress the need for racial profiling.  They are the ones that oppose a path to citizenship for immigrants without documentation.   This terrorist got his ideas from the Republican Party and the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise.  But one thing did concern me: the reference to Progressives for Immigration Reform.  I checked them out, and learned that they are just a front group for FAIR, the organization t.hat wrote Arizona’s unconstitutional racial profiling law.  There is nothing progressive about them.

I have repeatedly warned that the ongoing flood of hate speech coming from national Republican leaders and their media minions will result in such incidents.  The Republican Party murdered this poor demented man.  Thank God nobody else was killed.

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I expect the Republican Brown Shirts, aka the Tea Party,  to come up with their fair share of lunacy and then some, but it baffles me that a three star has joined their ranks.

2mcinerney Retired Air Force Lieutenant General Thomas McInerney has officially joined the legions of birthers, after writing an affidavit in support of Army Lieutenant Colonel Terrence Lakin who refused to deploy to Afghanistan because he does not believe President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Lakin faces a court martial on Oct. 13 for his refusal.

The affidavit from McInerney acknowledges concerns about Obama’s Constitutional eligibility, and demands that he release his birth records or that the court authorize discovery.

In addition, a hearing is set for Thursday at Fort Meade, Md. over a defense request for deposition of Hawaiian officials and written discovery of President Barack Obama’s school and college records… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <TPM>

Now this guy’s name seemed strangely familiar to me, and then, Rachel Maddow, reminded me why.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

That’s right.  When the right wing blogosphere kept claiming they had proof Iraq really did have WMD, this is the fool that started it.  It does not surprise me in the slightest that he’s Fox’s point man on military affairs.  And if Fox tires of him, Jan Brewer would welcome him with open arms.

As much as we tend to treat people like McInerney as a joke, this does raise two serious issues.

First, how did such a miscreant rise to the level of Lieutenant General in the USAF?  As I see it, this is a big red flag.  Republicans have been in charge over at DoD for twenty two out of the past thirty years.  People have made it to the top ranks, like this one and McChrystal, who are not fit to be there.  A major cleanup is needed.

Second, extremists like him have become the face of the Republican Party.  Under a Republican administration, he, or someone just like him, could well be the Secretary of Defense.   Think about it.

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Yesterday I fell further behind, because of my volunteer work co-facilitating a therapy group for former prisoners.  Today I plan to reply to comments and return visits.

Jig Zone Puzzle: Today it took me 4:02.  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football:Lefty Bloggers Plus players, the first game is one week from tonight on 9/9.  Don’t forget to set your starters.

Short Takes:

From Vanity Fair: Even as Sarah Palin’s public voice grows louder, she has become increasingly secretive, walling herself off from old friends and associates, and attempting to enforce silence from those around her. Following the former Alaska governor’s road show, the author delves into the surreal new world Palin now inhabits—a place of fear, anger, and illusion, which has swallowed up the engaging, small-town hockey mom and her family—and the sadness she has left in her wake.

The article is worth the read.

From Right Wing Watch: Right-wing radio host Michael Medved in his new Townhall column has discovered how God would vote in the upcoming election, and the answer isn’t surprising. According to Medved, “it’s difficult to escape the conclusion that the Almighty would cast his all-important ballot for Republicans.”

But how can he be so sure of how God would vote in November? Well, Medved argues that progressives’ commitment to social justice cannot have religious sanction because he says that progressivism, unlike conservatism, is inherently discriminatory.

What?  The party of profiling calls US discriminatory?!!?  Scheeesch!!  Anyway, to confirm this, one way or the other, I interviewed God this morning.  She says she’s a progressive Democrat. ;-)

From McClatchy DC: The National Weather Service has issued a hurricane warning for much of the North Carolina coast and people are being urged to leave low-lying areas as Earl slowly lumbers north.

You easterners, please take care and stay out of Lisa’s  Earl’s way.

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

2beeler

What are you planning for the Labor Day weekend?

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In case you haven’t seen the speech, here it is in its entirety with my commentary following:

When Obama called it “a war to disarm a state”, I disagree.  It was an aggressive, illegal, Republican war for oil and conquest.  It had nothing to do with arms.  That was a lie.  He should have said so.

I fully agree with his praise for out troops.  Their problems came from flawed Republican leadership.

I disagree with him on Afghanistan.  I cannot overly fault him, because I voted for him knowing that he planned to expand that war.  I think he should be flexible, given that the corruption of Republican puppet Karzai, and recognize a lose-lose situation.  At least he confirmed his commitment to start the withdrawal next August.

I agree that the focus needs to shift to the economy and restoring the middle class, but his call for unity is in vain.  If he thinks Republicans will cooperate, perhaps he might want to buy the infrastructure I’m selling in Brooklyn.

But at one thing, I felt outrage:

President Obama hailed his predecessor, George W. Bush, in his remarks on the end of combat operations in Iraq Tuesday night, stating that even though "he and I disagreed about the war from its outset," "no one could doubt President Bush’s support for our troops, or his love of country and commitment to our security."

"As I have said, there were patriots who supported this war, and patriots who opposed it," he said…

Inserted from <CBS>

Bush and his Republican cronies tried to screw our troops at every opportunity and did more to jeopardize our nation’s security than any of his predecessors.  He should have not have lied for Bush’s benefit.

In short, this was not the speech Obama should have given.  That said, I still prefer him over the Republicans

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Gallup’s generic ballot poll was a disaster for Democrats.  In itself, that’s important, but to have a chance of turning it around, we need to know who and what has caused this dire situation.

1house The Gallup organization dropped a bomb on the political world this week. In shorthand, the pollsters said Monday that if the midterm elections were held now, Republicans would take control of the House – and probably by a comfortable margin.

On Tuesday, James Campbell, a professor of political science at the University of Buffalo, weighed in with a prediction based on his modeling of the political climate. He said that Republicans are poised to gain 51 or 52 House seats, at least 11 more than needed to depose the Democrats.

Election Day is still two months away, but the twin findings added to the fear among Democrats that their House majority – and possibly their Senate majority as well – is in jeopardy.

For decades, Gallup has asked voters the following question: "If the elections for Congress were being held today, which party’s candidate would you vote for in your congressional district?"

This week’s survey produced the largest lead for the Republicans in the history of asking that question: 51 percent to 41 percent. Ninety-six percent of Republicans said they would vote for the GOP candidate, while 88 percent of Democrats said they would support the Democrat. Independents, who helped power Democratic victories in 2006 and 2008, split 48 percent to 31 percent for Republicans… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Washington Post>

Keith Olbermann and Richard Wolfe discussed this issue:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

For responsibility, let’s start with the Nevada Leg Hound, Harry Reid.  He has been too busy humping Republican legs go do his job.  At the end of the first session, it was clear that the Republican agenda was to obstruct by filibustering every bill.  He could have acted to change the filibuster and secret hold rules at the beginning of the current session.  He failed to act.  Had the Senate passed even half of what the House did and not critically weakened what did pass, we would not be in this situation.  If we are fortunate enough to keep the Senate majority, Harry Reid should be replaced.

Second, responsibility falls on Barack Obama himself.  He promised ‘change we can believe in’.  Then he appointed Geithner, Bernanke, and Summers and other corporate Democrats with few progressives.  One of the reasons I voted for him over Clinton is that I feared that Clinton would appoint those three.  In addition, he has persisted in foolish attempts at bipartisanship, even though it became clear long ago that Republicans will not respond, other than by wanting him dead.  He has been quick to forgive conservative appointees for egregious offences, and equally quick to throw progressives under the bus at the slightest bogus rumor from Fox, the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda.  He needs to remember who put him in office and deliver on his promises.  His only way to succeed is through his progressive base.

Third, I blame the traditional media.  They have failed to fact-check their reports and given Republican lies equal weight with Democratic truths.

Fourth, the anti-Obama progressives are undermining the party.  That poll is of likely voters, and Keith pointed out that far too many Democrats don’t even plan to vote.  Of those that do plan to vote, I am appalled that 12% of Democrats say a Democrat won’t get their vote.  I’m not telling you not to criticize.  I do, and we should.  But unless we support this party, flawed as it is, we’ll have John “Agent Orange” Boehner as our next speaker.

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