Politics Plus

Conventional wisdom dictates that Elizabeth Warren cannot beat Rick Scott (R-MA).  Conventional wisdom is wrong.  Conventional wisdom also dictated that Jeff Merkley (D-OR) could not beat incumbent Gordon Smith.  We demonstrated that Gordon Smith,Scott Brown, was a false moderate.  Smith was moderate whenever we didn’t need him.  If the issue was decided, one way or the other, and his vote did not matter, he voted with Democrats.  Whenever it mattered, he always lined up and goose-stepped with the Republican regime.  If MA progressives become energized for Warren, as we did for Merkley, she can win.

On Thursday, Elizabeth Warren announced that she’s starting an exploratory committee for a potential U.S. Senate run in Massachusetts. The news doesn’t come as much of a surprise. The Harvard Law professor, who recently stepped down from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau she originated, has been the subject of Senatorial speculation for months, if not longer. She recently hinted of her candidacy on a progressive Massachusetts blog and set off on a listening tour around the Bay State this week.

Some have called the move a trap. Her would-be Republican opponent’s popularity is pretty remarkable, even in polls run by Democrats. In the seat long held by Democratic lion Ted Kennedy, Sen. Scott Brown has played the Massachusetts version of a conservative fairly well, bucking his party just enough to come off as independent minded. And her Democratic challengers hardly make her a slam dunk: While she gets the best margin in a head-to-head poll pitting Democrats against Brown, her hardly impressive 28 percent (compared with Brown’s 53 percent) is not that much higher than City Year co-founder Alan Khazei’s 24 percent or Newton Mayor Setti Warren’s 21 percent.

But though it’s hardly guaranteed she will win the Democratic nomination—much less beat Brown—I think she stands a pretty good chance. Warren has become a darling of the left, so much so that they nearly made her appointment to head the agency she dreamed up a litmus test for President Obama’s progressive bona fides.

Ironically, Warren has something Brown now doesn’t, at least to the same extent: Passion from her followers…

Inserted from <Washington Post>

I still would rather see Warren replace Timmy the Tool, but this is the next best thing.  Long term, she has the potential to become America’s first woman President.

Molly Ivins labeled him “Governor Good Hair”.  That may be the only good thing about Rick Perry, even if millions of autos have to go without lubrication due to the shortage of grease his hair care causes.  Since it became apparent that he is seeking the presidency, he has tried to sell America one con job after another.  Two are the so-called “Texas Miracle” and the image of Perry the pious one.  There really is a Texas Miracle.  It’s a miracle that Texas has survived his reign.  On piety, he is a hypocrite of the worst order.

I think Rick Perry is going to get eaten alive in this campaign. If being an Al Gore supporter hasn’t already doomed him with the tea partiers, and if his dull, glazed-eyes George Bushian demeanor doesn’t doom him with everyone else, then his own record ought to do it.

We can thank Perry for one thing, though: yet another demonstration of how crazy/scary/controversial/liberal Keynesian economics actually works in practice:

Despite being one of the loudest critics of President Obama’s stimulus, Perry used billions of dollars of federal money to patch Texas’ budget shortfalls, and was thus able to create and maintain lots and lots of public sector jobs. In fact, if you look at net job creation between 2007 and 2010, it’s clear the only thing keeping Texas buoyant was government jobs.

Check out the below [above here] chart from Jared Bernstein — a fiscal policy expert at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and former chief economist to the stimulus bill’s top cop, Vice President Joe Biden. It shows pretty conclusively that the recession cost Texas 178,000 private sector jobs — a fairly small share for a populous state, when you consider that crisis cost the country many millions. But in the same period, it added 125,000 public sector jobs — nearly half of all government jobs created in this period nationwide. Put together, the Texas has only lost 53,000 jobs total during the downturn.

For all of Rick Perry’s whining about wanting more federal aid (when he wasn’t threatening to secede from the union rather than take it, that is), Texas made out like a bandit when it comes to government-supported job creation. Nearly half of all government jobs nationwide were added in Texas? Talk about federal stimulus!

Note that if those government jobs hadn’t been added—or worse, if they not only hadn’t been added, but further government jobs had been cut—the Texas unemployment situation would look even more dismal than it is… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Daily Kos>

There you have it.  Even Perry’s apparent success is based on hypocrisy.  He did everything he is now campaigning against.  But beneath the veneer, Texas under Perry is in terrible shape as Keith Olbermann demonstrates with Nia-Malika Henderson on Countdown.

I’m so glad Keith is back!

On the morality front, Perry has been pushing Dominionist Theocracy, disguised as Christianity, which it is not.  He presents himself as a prayerful minister, called to fight against the terrible moral decay he sees in our society.  Here is the real Rick Perry.

When Rick Perry entered the presidential race, he immediately challenged Michele Bachmann for the role of the preferred candidate of the Religious Right. This old story might come back and make some trouble for him on that front. It seems that Perry invested several thousand dollars in a movie rental chain that made most of its money on porn with titles like Teens with Tits Vol. 1, Teen Power Vol. 4, Teens Never Say No, Bisexual Barebacking Vol. 1, and Big Tit Brotha Lovers 6:

Forbes reports that pornography increases Movie Gallery’s profits enough to lowball the prices on regular, non-pornographic rentals. Pornography is a unique product that many stores are reluctant to sell. Movie Gallery’s practices have forced small, locally owned rental chains out of business.

The story just resurfaced on site PoliticusUSA, and they’ve taken it a step further by suggesting that Perry might not be the strongest candidate when it comes to women, linking to this Statesman story:

Gov. Rick Perry’s outgoing director of the Texas Film Commission has been allowed to stay on the job despite being disciplined for sexual harassment in 2009 and after a subsequent investigation found similar behavior again this year.

The latest investigation of Bob Hudgins also raised new concerns about gender discrimination in hiring practices.

… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Portland Mercury>

Don’t get me wrong.  If someone wants to produce and/or watch porn, I defend their right to do so under the First Amendment.  The only reason I am condemning Perry is his hypocrisy, demanding a standard of behavior for others, while exploiting the exact opposite for profit.

As much as Perry claims to be different, he is just another Republican liar and hypocrite.

Gone are the days when the billionaire financiers that created the Tea Party bussed well trained and well disciplined saboteurs from state to state to disrupt Democrats’ town hall meetings.  They have been replaced by individual activists with no outside financing and no schooling exactly what to say, speaking their minds in their own local communities against Republican attempts to destroy the middle class.  In this case, Fred Upton (R-MI) gets his comeuppance.

Earlier this week, Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) — who was recently appointed to the powerful congressional super committee that will be tasked to design a special debt deal — held a town hall in Kalamazoo, Michigan where he discussed a variety of issues with his constituents.

The town hall, which was captured on YouTube, featured an angry audience that was upset that Upton was not addressing job creation. As Upton began to discuss the role Medicare plays in the nation’s debt, a man shouted, “Where is job creation on your chart?” After that, a woman stood up and asked Upton to “cut from the top,” not from middle class Americans who’ve already beared the brunt of effects from the recession.

The woman drew applause, and audience members began chanting in favor of creating jobs, urging the congressman to make it his priority. Watch it:

 

… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

Those people deserve huge kudos!