January 2012 – Page 8 – Politics Plus

Open Thread–1/14/2012

Posted by TomCat at 12:00 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 142012

Yesterday I got some housework done and visited with some friends from a church ministry, who used to be Republicans, before meeting me a few months back. I’m current with replies. Today is a high holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, and I will be meditating on Broncos and Patriots, while hoping for another miracle.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 4:01 (average 5:43). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: How Much Money Can One President Spend?

14debt-full

A picture is worth a thousand words.

From The Guardian: Four US marines identified by the military as the soldiers filmed urinating on corpses in Afghanistan are likely to face a court martial after an American military commander said such actions are a "grave breach" of the laws of war.

I think they should throw the book at these individuals, while keeping in mind that seemingly endless participation in a dead-end war can have profound psychological effects.

From Raw Story: “He wears a sweater vest everywhere, which is proof that he does not have one gay friend,” Maher noted. “This guy thinks about gay sex more than any gay man in America. There’s a guy down in West Hollywood working at Dorothy’s and Dildos who does not think about gay sex as much as Rick Santorum.”

“Also, [he] wants to bomb Iran,” the comedian continued. “And I think people who are sexually frustrated want to bomb other countries.

LOL @ Bill Maher!! 😀

From Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The committee to recall Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald announced Friday it has the signatures to force an election.

Lori Compas, the recall committee’s chairwoman, said in a news conference the group had gathered more than the 16,742 signatures needed, but declined to say how many. She said volunteers would continue to gather signatures to recall the Juneau Republican through Saturday. That’s to provide a cushion because Fitzgerald will be able to knock some signatures off the petitions if he can show they belong to people who don’t live in the district or aren’t eligible to vote.

The petitions will be turned in Tuesday, along with those to recall Gov. Scott Walker, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and three other Republican senators.

Great news! For those not familiar, Fitzgerald is the “Fitz” in the Fascist Corporate Plutocracy of Fitzwalkerstan, formerly Wisconsin.

Cartoon:

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News v. Propaganda

Posted by TomCat at 12:04 am Politics

Jan 132012

One of my main complaints about the Main Stream Media is their tendency to regurgitate the data they get from their sources, without concern for accuracy. This does a disservice to those who depend on them for information. It biases the news significantly in favor of Republicans, because without the fact checking necessary to identity their lies, they get away with extraordinary disinformation. A major news source may be rethinking their role in fact checking.

The Public Editor of the New York Times (not as glamorous a position as the title might suggest) asks how deeply reporters should delve into whether or not the subjects of their reporting are baldly lying to them. The title:

Should The Times Be a Truth Vigilante?

I have heard of Truth Squads, and Truth Posses, and Truth Seekers, and Truth Commissions, and Parliamentary Committees for Truthiness, and Truth Truthers, but this is the first time I have ever heard the term truth vigilante. The image I have is of a drunken man on horseback, waving a pen in one hand and an almanac in the other, riding over the range in an angry stupor, hot on the trail of some truth that nobody else in the town gives a damn about, but a truth that killed his cousin’s sister-in-law’s daughter, and so he is a man on a mission. A Jack Daniels-fueled, New York Times-sponsored mission.

But the question posed by the Times‘ Public Editor is considerably less colorful.

I’m looking for reader input on whether and when New York Times news reporters should challenge “facts” that are asserted by newsmakers they write about.

He goes on to explain that an opinion columnist, like Paul Krugman, clearly has the “freedom” to call out untruths in a way that mere, factually-based reporters somehow do not. His example is Mitt Romney constantly claiming that Barack Obama has been “apologizing for America” when in actual fact that has never, ever happened, as the Public Editor himself points out… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Daily Kos>

I see real irony here that reporters, who can check facts, are considered “opinion columnists”, while reporters, who merely parrot sources, are considered “factually-based reporters”. Obviously there is nothing factually-based about reporters who do not check for or challenge falsehood. Furthermore, reporters who do reporting far more than opinion.

Many lies have become commonly held opinions, because Republicans have been repeating them for so long without challenge in the press. One example is that there were no terrorist attacks on the Republican watch. (We won’t mention September 11.)

Any reporter who does not call out sources for untruths is an propagandist, not a reporter.

You can contact the Times here:

Please feel free to leave a comment below [in their article, not here] or send me an e-mail at public@nytimes.com with the subject line: Readers Point the Way: Correcting Untruths. Please adhere to my comment moderation policy when posting.

Warren Campaign on Fire!

Posted by TomCat at 12:04 am Politics

Jan 132012

Scott Brown is shaking in his boots and whining about how special interests are out to get him. He’s right. The interests of the people of the United States are special and they are the ones contributing record amounts to elect Elizabeth Warren as Senator from MA.

These numbers really are quite astonishing for anyone, let alone someone with no prior political experience.

via The Boston Globe:

Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law School professor and consumer advocate whose US Senate candidacy has fired up Democrats across the nation, raised $5.7 million in the last three months of 2011, an unusually large amount for a first-time candidate and a reflection of what many observers say is her potent appeal to party leaders and activists eager to recapture the seat once held by Edward M. Kennedy.

Her overall fund-raising for the three final months of 2011 far outpaced Senator Scott Brown’s $3.2-million total for the same period.

…

Tad Devine, an experienced Washington-based Democratic media consultant, said Warren’s fund-raising prowess is startling for a candidate with no background in electoral politics.

“That is an extraordinary amount of money to be raised by a first-time candidate,’’ he said…

… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Crooks and Liars>

Here’s the video:

You heard that right. The average contribution to Elizabeth Warren’s campaign is just $64. I wonder why Scott Brown is not releasing this data?

Open Thread–1/13/2012

Posted by TomCat at 12:03 am Uncategorized

Jan 132012

Yesterday I slept late. I ducked my email to finally attack that huge pile of paperwork and got it done in a few hours. I napped in the late afternoon. I’m current with replies. Tomorrow I have housework to do. What dominated the news today was Republicans attacking Republicans over attacking another Republican for acting like a Republican.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 3:44 (average 4:25). To do it click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From USA Today: The Justice Department is defending the legality of President Obama’s recent recess appointment of a national consumer watchdog and other officials from criticism by Republicans.

The department released a 23-page legal opinion Thursday summarizing the advice it gave the White House before the Jan. 4 appointments. Assistant Attorney General Virginia Seitz wrote that the president has authority to make such appointments during a congressional recess of the current length. Seitz argued the Senate’s periodic pro forma sessions in which no business is conducted have not enabled the chamber to advise and consent to regular nominations, as it is empowered to do under the Constitution.

That makes sense to me. The sham pro-forma sessions left the Senate out of session for purposes of fulfilling their duty to advise and consent.

From Crooks and Liars: Less than two days after the NYCLU demanded that Brookfield Properties remove the barricades preventing the public from accessing Zuccotti Park, the property management company has done just that. Tuesday evening, the barricades were removed and stacked off to the sides, permitting visitors to enter the park.

With freedom comes responsibility; according to one occupier, “Brookfield Security said unless we do something stupid the park will remain open!”

Good for them. I’m glad they got the park back.

From Alternet: It’s almost as if Republicans are actively striving to get a reputation for being mean to poor, hungry people. On Tuesday, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the administration of Gov. Tom Corbett plans to start restricting eligibility to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as the food stamp program). Specifically, the state is imposing an “asset test” — anyone under 60 years old with savings of more than $2,000 is no longer eligible for assistance.

Here Republicans are making certain that, before a needy family can get food, that have to be unable to buy medicine and pay medical expenses.

Cartoon:

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Obama Honors Insourcers

Posted by TomCat at 12:08 am Politics

Jan 122012

A hallmark of Republican supply-side economics is the millions of jobs these policies have created. The difficulty is that they have created them in Latin America and Asia. Even worse, the method they have used to create them is to rip the jobs from American workers. For Republicans, corporate profit trumps America’s economic success and the well being of the American people. Fortunately a few good companies are insourcing jobs. Barack Obama took time out to honor those companies and commit to incentives to companies to bring jobs back to America.

President Obama said on Wednesday that he would propose tax incentives for companies to bring home manufacturing jobs they had moved overseas, and curtail tax breaks for those that keep relocating jobs abroad.

Flanked by executives from the aerospace, chemical and furniture industries — all of whom are building or expanding factories in the United States — Mr. Obama declared that the nation was beginning to see the reversal of a long-term trend toward outsourcing. He called the new trend, perhaps inevitably, “insourcing.”

“We’re at a unique moment, an inflection point, a period where we’ve got the opportunity for those jobs to come back,” Mr. Obama said in the White House, after meeting with the executives. The American economy, he noted, has added manufacturing jobs for two years in a row, after more than a decade of losses… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

Here’s the video of the event.

The unfortunate part of this is that Obama cannot institute all these policies alone. He is certain to meet stiff opposition from Congressional Republicans, because they oppose anything that does not help millionaires, billionaires and corporate criminals. That’s another reason why your vote in 2012 is so important. If Republicans take control. you can kiss jobs goodbye, because vulture capitalism is the Republican way.

The Return of a Giant

Posted by TomCat at 12:05 am Politics

Jan 122012

Today’s news media have a few quality commentators, but for the most part they are talking heads, regurgitating corporate swill to infotain the masses. Not long ago we had a journalist who commanded respect. I did not always agree with him, but integrity demanded that I respect him as a true giant walking in a forest of gnomes. I am most pleased that he will soon be back on the air.

You already may have heard that I’d be coming back in January with a new series on the public television station nearest you. But you may not have heard exactly why. It’s not just that I lack retirement skills, as my wife and co-editor, Judith, keeps reminding me. Or that the squeaky rocking chair on the front porch got on my nerves. I’m coming back because in tumultuous times like these I relish the company of people who try to make sense of the tumult. These are the people I’ll bring to our new broadcast, Moyers & Company.

Journalism has long been for me a continuing course in adult education. Given what’s happening in this country, it’s time to sign up for more classes. The lack of civility and common sense that has paralyzed our democracy, the vast economic and social inequality that sends both left and right raging into the streets, the corrosive influence of money in politics – we’re in a tailspin with little hope for a course correction from our elected leadership or corporate-dominated media. The need for voices of reason, simple and eloquent, has rarely been stronger… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Truth-out>

I for one look forward to his return, and I’m glad to see that, under the Obama administration, PBS is welcoming such journalists again, instead of the Bush administration forcing them out.

An Excellent Appointment

Posted by TomCat at 12:04 am Politics

Jan 122012

One of the areas in whi9ch I have been most critical of Barack Obama has been his terrible record of appointing Clintonista neo-liberals important jobs from Timmy “the tool” Geithner down. I could not be more pleased that, on the heels of appointing Elizabeth Warren’s choice to head the CFPB, Barack Obama had just appointed a progressive activist to a key domestic post.

President Obama’s announcement that Cecilia Munoz will be appointed to lead the White House Domestic Policy Council is great news for Progressives – and especially for advocates of immigration reform.

Munoz is a passionate advocate of the interests of everyday working people and defending the embattled American middle class. She is also a talented and inspiring leader. Munoz knows how to get things done in a tangled world of government bureaucracy. And she knows her way around the byzantine corridors of the Capitol.

More importantly, she is deeply committed to progressive values and to the welfare of ordinary, working Americans.

Her appointment is great government – and great politics.

Her skill will bolster the President’s ability to take initiatives that will strengthen America’s economy, with or without Congress. And her appointment is symbolic of the Administration’s commitment to mount a major campaign to pass immigration reform in a new Congress if he is re-elected this fall… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Huffington Post>

Congrats to Cecilia Munoz, and kudos to Barack Obama for an excellent appointment.

Open Thread–1/12/2012

Posted by TomCat at 12:03 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 122012

Yesterday I slept late. I’m not surprised after covering New Hampshire and the Bonamici debate on the same day. I spent some time organizing volunteer work, and I’ll be spending three days a month in the prison instead of two this year. I’m current with replies. I still have that paperwork to do today

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 4:45 (average 5:12). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From TPM: Pat Buchanan’s explanation for his problems at MSNBC is exactly what you might expect: “Militant gay rights groups” and “people of color, Van Jones” are responsible.

Bull! Buchanan is responsible,because he went on a ite supremacist radio show and spewed his racist filth to promote his book.

From AP/Google: It seemed a clockwork killing: Motorcycle riders flashed by and attached a magnetic bomb onto a car carrying a nuclear scientist working at Iran’s main uranium enrichment facility. By the time the blast tore apart the silver Peugeot, the bike was blocks away, weaving through Tehran traffic after what Iran calls the latest strike in an escalating covert war.

The attack — which instantly killed the scientist and fatally wounded his driver on Wednesday — was at least the fourth targeted hit against a member of Iran’s nuclear brain trust in two years. Tehran quickly blamed Israeli-linked agents backed by the U.S. and Britain.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton denied any U.S. role in the slaying, and the Obama administration condemned the attack. However, provocative hints from Jerusalem reinforced the perception of an organized and clandestine campaign to set back Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

This has all the earmarks of act of Israeli terrorism, but I have no doubt that there will be people blaming Obama.

From Think Progress: Five senators and 39 representatives received a perfect 100 percent score [Koch delinked] from the Koch brothers’ Astroturf group Americans For Prosperity for the first half of the 112th Congress. AFP judged Congress on their votes to protect the Koch brothers’ right-wing petrochemical empire [Koch delinked] on such issues as the repeal of President Obama’s new health care law, preempting EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases, Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget to end Medicare, ending ethanol subsidies, several Congressional Review Act resolutions of disapproval to overturn new regulations and the fiscal year 2012 appropriations bills.

Click through to find out who the corrupt Koch suckers are.

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